---
title: White men were secured to take charge of small cannon, and to drill… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: White men were secured to take charge of small cannon, and to drill squads of warriors equipped with the rude firearms of a century ago. 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 149

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White men were secured to take charge of small cannon, and to drill squads of warriors equipped with the rude firearms of a century ago.

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**What happens:** secure, take, drill, equip, charge · **To what, where:** White men, charge, squads, small cannon

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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:pg66357:18:149
# text = White men were secured to take charge of small cannon, and to drill squads of warriors equipped with the rude firearms of a century ago.
1	White	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	secured	secure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	charge	charge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	cannon	cannon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	drill	drill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
15	squads	squad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	warriors	warrior	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
18	equipped	equip	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	rude	rude	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	firearms	firearm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	century	century	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
26	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **secure** | past · passive |  | White men |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | to-infinitive |  | charge of small cannon |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent charge=Theme |
| 3 | **drill** | to-infinitive |  | squads of warriors |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent squad=Patient |
| 4 | **equip** | participle |  | squads of warriors *not said here* |  |  |  | with the rude firearms | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP»: agent=Agent with firearm=Theme |
| 5 | **charge** |  |  | small cannon |  |  |  |  | nom charge «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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