---
title: The chiefess told her husband to pour the water of life in his hand. — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The chiefess told her husband to pour the water of life in his hand. Who acts: chiefess. 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 169

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The chiefess told her husband to pour the water of life in his hand.

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**Who acts:** chiefess · **What happens:** tell, pour · **To what, where:** husband, water, hand · **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 (chiefess), 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:pg66357:4:169
# text = The chiefess told her husband to pour the water of life in his hand.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chiefess	chiefess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	pour	pour	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the chiefess |  | Pele's husband |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent husband=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pour** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the chiefess *not said here* | the water of life |  | chiefess's hand |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient |

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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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