---
title: This dragon was probably a very old crocodile worshipped as the ance… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: This dragon was probably a very old crocodile worshipped as the ancestor goddess of the Hawaiian chief families. Who acts: dragon. 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 2

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This dragon was probably a very old crocodile worshipped as the ancestor goddess of the Hawaiian chief families.

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**Who acts:** dragon · **What happens:** be, worshipp · **To what, where:** old crocodile

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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 (dragon), 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:pg66357:4:2
# text = This dragon was probably a very old crocodile worshipped as the ancestor goddess of the Hawaiian chief families.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	worshipped	worshipp	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	ancestor	ancestor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	goddess	goddess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	Hawaiian	hawaiian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	families	family	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | this dragon | a old crocodile |  |  |  | probably *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **worshipp** | participle |  | a old crocodile *not said here* |  |  |  | as the ancestor goddess of the Hawaiian chief families | tree rules |

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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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