---
title: “The singers in the war canoes sang softly, O King, while the boats… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “The singers in the war canoes sang softly, O King, while the boats were hurried along through the night. Who acts: singers. 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 26

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“The singers in the war canoes sang softly, O King, while the boats were hurried along through the night.

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**Who acts:** singers · **What happens:** sing, hurry · **To what, where:** boats

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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 (singers), 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:pg66357:18:26
# text = “The singers in the war canoes sang softly, O King, while the boats were hurried along through the night.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	singers	singer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	canoes	canoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
8	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	O	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	12	case	_	_
12	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	boats	boat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	hurried	hurry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
19	along	along	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	through	through	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* *in a quote* | past | the singers in the war canoes |  |  |  |  | King *vocative*; softly *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hurry** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | the boats |  |  | night | along *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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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