---
title: Legends are the indistinct memories of nations, and are of real valu… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Legends are the indistinct memories of nations, and are of real value when there is any opportunity for comparison. Who acts: Legends, opportunity. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, A Viking of the Pacific, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, A Viking of the Pacific, sentence 4

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Legends are the indistinct memories of nations, and are of real value when there is any opportunity for comparison.

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**Who acts:** Legends, opportunity · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** indistinct memories

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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 (Legends, opportunity), 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:pg66357:5:4
# text = Legends are the indistinct memories of nations, and are of real value when there is any opportunity for comparison.
1	Legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	indistinct	indistinct	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	memories	memory	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	nations	nation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	value	value	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
16	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	comparison	comparison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Legends | the indistinct memories |  |  |  | of nations | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | of real value | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | present | any opportunity for comparison |  |  | 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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