---
title: The chiefess of that land looked out and saw a boat in the ocean, an… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The chiefess of that land looked out and saw a boat in the ocean, and sent some birds to see what the boat was doing and learn whether it was a war canoe, or a travelling boat. Who acts: chiefess, boat. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Water of Life [1], with its 
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Water of Life \[1\], sentence 24

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The chiefess of that land looked out and saw a boat in the ocean, and sent some birds to see what the boat was doing and learn whether it was a war canoe, or a travelling boat.

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**Who acts:** chiefess, boat · **What happens:** look out, see, send, do, learn, be · **To what, where:** boat, ocean, birds, war canoe · **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, boat), 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:pg66357:4:24
# text = The chiefess of that land looked out and saw a boat in the ocean, and sent some birds to see what the boat was doing and learn whether it was a war canoe, or a travelling boat.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chiefess	chiefess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	ocean	ocean	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	26	obj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	ccomp	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
29	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	travelling	travelling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	_
39	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look out** | past | the chiefess of that land |  |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **see** | past | the chiefess of that land *not said here* | a boat |  | the ocean |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer boat=Stimulus |
| 3 | **send** | past | the chiefess of that land *not said here* | some birds |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | the chiefess of that land *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **do** | past · progressive | the boat |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 6 | **learn** | infinitive | the chiefess of that land *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | past | boat | a war canoe or a travelling boat |  |  |  | a travelling boat *conj* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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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