---
title: His hands were black, and those watching the water of life would loo… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: His hands were black, and those watching the water of life would look at the hands reaching for water and make no mistake. Who acts: hands, those, water. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Water of Life [1], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Water of Life \[1\], sentence 152

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His hands were black, and those watching the water of life would look at the hands reaching for water and make no mistake.

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**Who acts:** hands, those, water · **What happens:** be, watch, look, reach, make · **To what, where:** mistake

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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 (hands, those, water), 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:pg66357:4:152
# text = His hands were black, and those watching the water of life would look at the hands reaching for water and make no mistake.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	8	nsubj	_	_
8	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	reaching	reach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
23	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	24	det	_	_
24	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | guardian's hands |  |  |  |  | black *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **watch** | gerund | those |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **look** | would | the water of life |  |  |  |  | at the hands | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at hand=Theme |
| 4 | **reach** | gerund | the hands *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for water | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **make** | present | the water of life *not said here* | no mistake |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset mistake=Product |

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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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