---
title: The story runs that when they saw Ka-meha-meha they bowed their head… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The story runs that when they saw Ka-meha-meha they bowed their heads, hoping to escape recognition. Who acts: story, prisoners. 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 182

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The story runs that when they saw Ka-meha-meha they bowed their heads, hoping to escape recognition.

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**Who acts:** story, prisoners · **What happens:** run, see, bow, hope, escape · **To what, where:** Ka, heads, recognition

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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 (story, prisoners), 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:pg66357:18:182
# text = The story runs that when they saw Ka-meha-meha they bowed their heads, hoping to escape recognition.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	runs	run	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
8	Ka	Ka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	meha	meha	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	8	dep	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	meha	meha	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	8	dep	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	hoping	hope	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	escape	escape	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	recognition	recognition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	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 | **run** | present | the story |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | prisoners *= prisoner* | Ka |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ka=Stimulus |
| 3 | **bow** | past | prisoners *= prisoner* | prisoners's heads |  |  |  |  | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Topic |
| 4 | **hope** | gerund | prisoners *= prisoner* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **escape** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | prisoners *= prisoner* *not said here* | recognition |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme recognition=Initial\_Location |

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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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