---
title: The men turned back and struck at him with their paddles, but after… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The men turned back and struck at him with their paddles, but after a few blows the paddles were destroyed. Who acts: men. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 106

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The men turned back and struck at him with their paddles, but after a few blows the paddles were destroyed.

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** turn back, strike, blow, destroy · **To what, where:** paddles

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men), 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:pg66357:18:106
# text = The men turned back and struck at him with their paddles, but after a few blows the paddles were destroyed.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	back	back	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	paddles	paddle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	after	after	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	blows	blow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	paddles	paddle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	destroyed	destroy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn back** | past | the men |  |  |  |  |  | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **strike** | past | the men *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at man; with feet's paddles | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP PP»: agent=Agent at he=Patient with paddle=Instrument |
| 3 | **blow** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **destroy** | past · passive |  | the paddles |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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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