---
title: He got two young cocoanuts and told her to turn her eyes toward the… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: He got two young cocoanuts and told her to turn her eyes toward the sky. Who acts: guardian. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Water of Life [1], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Water of Life \[1\], sentence 143

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He got two young cocoanuts and told her to turn her eyes toward the sky.

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**Who acts:** guardian · **What happens:** get, tell, turn · **To what, where:** two young cocoanuts, woman, eyes, sky · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Water of Life \[1\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (guardian), 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:pg66357:4:143
# text = He got two young cocoanuts and told her to turn her eyes toward the sky.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
4	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	cocoanuts	cocoanut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | guardian | two young cocoanuts |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cocoanut=Stimulus |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | guardian *not said here* |  | woman |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **turn** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | guardian *not said here* | woman's eyes |  | the sky |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent eye=Theme toward sky=Trajectory |

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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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