---
title: A family of mud hens, worshipped by some of the Hawaiians in later y… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: A family of mud hens, worshipped by some of the Hawaiians in later years, understood the art of fire-making. Who acts: family. 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 53

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A family of mud hens, worshipped by some of the Hawaiians in later years, understood the art of fire-making.

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**Who acts:** family · **What happens:** worshipp, understand · **To what, where:** family, art

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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 (family), 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:pg66357:2:53
# text = A family of mud hens, worshipped by some of the Hawaiians in later years, understood the art of fire-making.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	hens	hen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	worshipped	worshipp	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	obl:agent	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Hawaiians	Hawaiian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	later	late	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	amod	_	_
15	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
17	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	making	making	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **worshipp** | participle |  | a family of mud hens *not said here* |  |  | year |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **understand** | past | a family of mud hens | the art of fire making |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer art=Stimulus |

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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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