---
title: The birds counted the figures in the boat and then started to build… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The birds counted the figures in the boat and then started to build a heap of wood for the fire. Who acts: birds. 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 62

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The birds counted the figures in the boat and then started to build a heap of wood for the fire.

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**Who acts:** birds · **What happens:** count, start, build · **To what, where:** figures, boat, heap

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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 (birds), 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:pg66357:2:62
# text = The birds counted the figures in the boat and then started to build a heap of wood for the fire.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	counted	count	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	figures	figure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
11	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | past | the birds | the figures |  | the boat |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent figure=Theme |
| 2 | **start** | past | the birds *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **build** | to-infinitive | the birds *not said here* | a heap of wood |  |  |  | for the fire | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: agent=Agent heap=Product for fire=Asset |

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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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