---
title: While the chiefs were around the poi-bowl that evening he was very q… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: While the chiefs were around the poi-bowl that evening he was very quiet. Who acts: chiefs, poi bowl. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/64/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Historical Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/) / [The Law of the Splintered Paddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/) / 64

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 64

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While the chiefs were around the poi-bowl that evening he was very quiet.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** chiefs, poi bowl · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** poi bowl

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (chiefs, poi bowl), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66357:18:64
# text = While the chiefs were around the poi-bowl that evening he was very quiet.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
5	around	around	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	poi	poi	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	bowl	bowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	det	_	_
11	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the chiefs |  |  | the poi bowl | evening |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the poi bowl |  |  |  |  | chief *nsubj*; quiet *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/63/)
- next →: [sentence 65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/65/)
- ↑ back to [The Law of the Splintered Paddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/)