---
title: They spend their days in idleness, and therefore their lands are gro… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They spend their days in idleness, and therefore their lands are grown over with weeds and there is little food growing. Who acts: people, little food. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The First Constitution, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The First Constitution, sentence 97

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They spend their days in idleness, and therefore their lands are grown over with weeds and there is little food growing.

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**Who acts:** people, little food · **What happens:** spend, grow over, be, grow · **To what, where:** idleness, lands

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The First Constitution. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, little food), 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:pg66357:21:97
# text = They spend their days in idleness, and therefore their lands are grown over with weeds and there is little food growing.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spend	spend	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	idleness	idleness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	lands	land	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
14	over	over	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	weeds	weed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
20	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
22	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | present | people |  |  | idleness | day |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **grow over** | present · passive |  | people's lands |  |  |  | with weeds; over, therefore *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: subject=Patient with weed=Instrument |
| 3 | **be** | present | little food |  |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **grow** | gerund | little food *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «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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