---
title: A nation founded in the sunlight of civilisation cannot have a legen… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: A nation founded in the sunlight of civilisation cannot have a legendary past, but it must depend many times upon the cloudy memory of individuals. Who acts: nation, it. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, A Viking of the Pacific, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, A Viking of the Pacific, sentence 3

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A nation founded in the sunlight of civilisation cannot have a legendary past, but it must depend many times upon the cloudy memory of individuals.

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**Who acts:** nation, it · **What happens:** found, not have, depend · **To what, where:** nation, sunlight, legendary past

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, A Viking of the Pacific. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nation, it), 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:pg66357:5:3
# text = A nation founded in the sunlight of civilisation cannot have a legendary past, but it must depend many times upon the cloudy memory of individuals.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	nation	nation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
3	founded	found	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	civilisation	civilisation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	legendary	legendary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	depend	depend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
20	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
22	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	cloudy	cloudy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	memory	memory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	individuals	individual	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **found** | participle |  | a nation *not said here* |  | the sunlight of civilisation |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **have** | can | a nation | a legendary past |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent past=Patient |
| 3 | **depend** | must | it |  |  |  | time | upon the cloudy memory of individuals | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent |

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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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