---
title: They might ultimately sail eastward to Tahiti or to the Marquesas Is… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They might ultimately sail eastward to Tahiti or to the Marquesas Islands, but they started toward the home of their ancestors, westward. Who acts: groups. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Legendary Home of the Polynesians, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Legendary Home of the Polynesians, sentence 31

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They might ultimately sail eastward to Tahiti or to the Marquesas Islands, but they started toward the home of their ancestors, westward.

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**Who acts:** groups · **What happens:** sail, start · **To what, where:** eastward, Tahiti

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Legendary Home of the Polynesians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (groups), 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:pg66357:6:31
# text = They might ultimately sail eastward to Tahiti or to the Marquesas Islands, but they started toward the home of their ancestors, westward.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	ultimately	ultimately	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	sail	sail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	eastward	eastward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Tahiti	Tahiti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	Marquesas	Marquesas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	Islands	Island	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	ancestors	ancestor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	westward	westward	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sail** | might | groups *= group* | eastward |  | Tahiti or the Marquesas Islands |  | ultimately *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent eastward=Theme to tahiti=Trajectory |
| 2 | **start** | past | groups *= group* |  |  |  |  | toward the home of groups's ancestors; westward *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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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