---
title: They went home and told the chiefess: “We went to the precipice; the… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They went home and told the chiefess: “We went to the precipice; there was no one there. Who acts: Aukele, We, one. 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 42

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They went home and told the chiefess: “We went to the precipice; there was no one there.

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**Who acts:** Aukele, We, one · **What happens:** go, tell, be · **To what, where:** chiefess, precipice · **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 (Aukele, We, one), 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:pg66357:4:42
# text = They went home and told the chiefess: “We went to the precipice; there was no one there.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	home	home	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	chiefess	chiefess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	precipice	precipice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
20	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | Aukele |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Aukele *not said here* |  | the chiefess |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Agent chiefess=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | past | We |  |  | the precipice |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to precipice=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | past | no one |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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