---
title: However, it was impossible to keep the boatmen from telling the stor… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: However, it was impossible to keep the boatmen from telling the story of the splintered paddle and the wounded steersman. 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 127

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However, it was impossible to keep the boatmen from telling the story of the splintered paddle and the wounded steersman.

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**What happens:** be, keep, tell, splinter · **To what, where:** boatmen, story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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: 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:pg66357:18:127
# text = However, it was impossible to keep the boatmen from telling the story of the splintered paddle and the wounded steersman.
1	However	however	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	expl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	csubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	boatmen	boatman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	splintered	splinter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	paddle	paddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	wounded	wounded	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	steersman	steersman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | however, impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | the boatmen |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boatman=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund |  | the story of the splintered paddle and the wounded steersman |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |
| 4 | **splinter** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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