---
title: In former years a naval battle meant the clash of canoe against cano… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: In former years a naval battle meant the clash of canoe against canoe, the heavy stroke of war clubs against war clubs and clouds of hurled javelins and spears. Who acts: naval battle, canoe. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Red Mouth Gun, with its dependency tree
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Red Mouth Gun, sentence 74

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In former years a naval battle meant the clash of canoe against canoe, the heavy stroke of war clubs against war clubs and clouds of hurled javelins and spears.

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**Who acts:** naval battle, canoe · **What happens:** mean, hurl, clash, stroke · **To what, where:** clash, war clubs

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Red Mouth Gun. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (naval battle, canoe), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66357:17:74
# text = In former years a naval battle meant the clash of canoe against canoe, the heavy stroke of war clubs against war clubs and clouds of hurled javelins and spears.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	naval	naval	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	clash	clash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	against	against	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	stroke	stroke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	clubs	club	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
21	against	against	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	clubs	club	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	hurled	hurl	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	amod	_	_
28	javelins	javelin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | past | a naval battle | the clash of canoe against canoe and the heavy stroke of war clubs against war clubs of hurled javelins and spears and clouds |  |  | year |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clash=Topic |
| 2 | **hurl** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **clash** |  | canoe against canoe |  |  |  |  |  | nom clash «event intransitive»: of=agent |
| 4 | **stroke** |  |  | war clubs against war clubs of hurled javelins and spears and clouds |  |  |  |  | nom stroke «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Project Gutenberg book 66357 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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