---
title: They were his property to be burned or cut to pieces and placed in t… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They were his property to be burned or cut to pieces and placed in the temples of the gods. Who acts: people. 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 173

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They were his property to be burned or cut to pieces and placed in the temples of the gods.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** be, burn, cut, place · **To what, where:** property, pieces, temples

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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 (people), 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:pg66357:18:173
# text = They were his property to be burned or cut to pieces and placed in the temples of the gods.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	property	property	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	burned	burn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	temples	temple	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | people | king's property |  |  |  | king *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 2 | **burn** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V» |
| 3 | **cut** | participle |  |  |  | pieces |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to piece=Location |
| 4 | **place** | participle |  |  |  | the temples of the gods |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in temple=Destination |

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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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