---
title: The brothers came to him with food which they had put in moss-covere… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The brothers came to him with food which they had put in moss-covered calabashes. Who acts: 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 76

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The brothers came to him with food which they had put in moss-covered calabashes.

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**Who acts:** brothers · **What happens:** come, put, cover · **To what, where:** dog, food, covered calabashes

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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 (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:pg66357:4:76
# text = The brothers came to him with food which they had put in moss-covered calabashes.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	moss	moss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	calabashes	calabash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the brothers |  | dog |  |  | with food | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **put** | past · perfect · passive |  | food |  | covered calabashes |  | brothers *= brother* *nsubj* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in calabash=Destination |
| 3 | **cover** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | moss *compound* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: 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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