---
title: After a long time on the sea all their food was gone and they were s… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: After a long time on the sea all their food was gone and they were starving and lying in the bottom of the boat. Who acts: food, brothers. 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 18

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After a long time on the sea all their food was gone and they were starving and lying in the bottom of the boat.

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**Who acts:** food, brothers · **What happens:** be, starve, lie · **To what, where:** bottom

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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 (food, brothers), 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:pg66357:4:18
# text = After a long time on the sea all their food was gone and they were starving and lying in the bottom of the boat.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	10	det:predet	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | brothers's food |  |  |  | time | gone *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **starve** | past · progressive | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lie** | gerund | brothers *= brother* *not said here* |  |  | the bottom of the boat |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in bottom=Location |

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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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