---
title: In the village could be heard wailing as the scanty news of the batt… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: In the village could be heard wailing as the scanty news of the battle was hastily reported, and the people realised that some loved chief or friend would never return again to their homes. Who acts: people, loved chief. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 62

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In the village could be heard wailing as the scanty news of the battle was hastily reported, and the people realised that some loved chief or friend would never return again to their homes.

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**Who acts:** people, loved chief · **What happens:** hear, wail, report, realise, love, not return · **To what, where:** village, battle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, loved chief), 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:pg66357:18:62
# text = In the village could be heard wailing as the scanty news of the battle was hastily reported, and the people realised that some loved chief or friend would never return again to their homes.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	wailing	wail	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	xcomp	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	scanty	scanty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
16	hastily	hastily	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	reported	report	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	realised	realise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	det	_	_
25	loved	love	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	amod	_	_
26	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	_
32	again	again	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	homes	home	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | could · passive |  |  |  | the village |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **wail** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | as the scanty news of the battle | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **report** | past · passive |  | the battle *not said here* |  |  |  | hastily *property* | vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V NP» |
| 4 | **realise** | past | the people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **love** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **not** **return** | would | some loved chief or friend |  |  |  | again | to people's homes *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to home=Result |

<!-- .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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