---
title: The white man’s ships and the white man’s weapons were becoming fami… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The white man’s ships and the white man’s weapons were becoming familiar to the great king. Who acts: ships. 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 148

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The white man’s ships and the white man’s weapons were becoming familiar to the great king.

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**Who acts:** ships · **What happens:** become

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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 (ships), 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:pg66357:18:148
# text = The white man’s ships and the white man’s weapons were becoming familiar to the great king.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	weapons	weapon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	becoming	become	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
14	familiar	familiar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past · progressive | the white man's ships and the white man's weapons |  |  |  |  | familiar *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: 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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