---
title: They quickly put the palms of their hands under it, then the tips of… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They quickly put the palms of their hands under it, then the tips of their fingers, and it retreated farther and farther. Who acts: Islanders, mass. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui the Polynesian, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Maui the Polynesian, sentence 42

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They quickly put the palms of their hands under it, then the tips of their fingers, and it retreated farther and farther.

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**Who acts:** Islanders, mass · **What happens:** put, retreat · **To what, where:** palms, mass

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui the Polynesian. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Islanders, mass), 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:pg66357:2:42
# text = They quickly put the palms of their hands under it, then the tips of their fingers, and it retreated farther and farther.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	palms	palm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	under	under	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tips	tip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	retreated	retreat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	farther	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	21	advmod	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	farther	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | past | Islanders *= islander* | the palms of Islanders's hands |  | mass |  | the tips of Islanders's fingers *conj*; quickly *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent palm=Theme under it=Destination |
| 2 | **retreat** | past | mass |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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