---
title: He called a few strong boatmen and his favourite canoe steerer, laun… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: He called a few strong boatmen and his favourite canoe steerer, launched one of the war canoes, and with sail and paddle sped southward. Who acts: chief. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 69

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He called a few strong boatmen and his favourite canoe steerer, launched one of the war canoes, and with sail and paddle sped southward.

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**Who acts:** chief · **What happens:** call, launch, speed · **To what, where:** few strong boatmen, one · **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 (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:pg66357:18:69
# text = He called a few strong boatmen and his favourite canoe steerer, launched one of the war canoes, and with sail and paddle sped southward.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	boatmen	boatman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
9	favourite	favourite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	steerer	steerer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	launched	launch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	canoes	canoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	sail	sail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	paddle	paddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	sped	speed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	southward	southward	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | chief | a few strong boatmen and chief's favourite canoe steerer |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent boatman=Recipient |
| 2 | **launch** | past | chief *not said here* | one of the war canoes |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 3 | **speed** | past | chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with sail and paddle; southward *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=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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