---
title: An English Captain (George C. Beckley) some time near the beginning… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: An English Captain (George C. Beckley) some time near the beginning of the century brought a small ship to the islands and sold it to the chiefs. Who acts: English Captain. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Hawaiian Flag, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Hawaiian Flag, sentence 33

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An English Captain (George C. Beckley) some time near the beginning of the century brought a small ship to the islands and sold it to the chiefs.

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**Who acts:** English Captain · **What happens:** bring, sell, begin · **To what, where:** small ship, islands, ship, chiefs, century

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Hawaiian Flag. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (English Captain), 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:pg66357:22:33
# text = An English Captain (George C. Beckley) some time near the beginning of the century brought a small ship to the islands and sold it to the chiefs.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Captain	captain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
4	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
6	C.	C.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	flat	_	_
7	Beckley	Beckley	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	5	punct	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
11	near	near	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	century	century	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	sold	sell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring** | past | a English Captain | a small ship |  | the islands |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent ship=Theme to island=Destination |
| 2 | **sell** | past | a English Captain *not said here* | ship | the chiefs |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Theme to chief=Recipient |
| 3 | **begin** |  |  | the century |  |  |  |  | nom beginning «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
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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