---
title: Canoes were stationed at the point from which the older chiefs had d… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Canoes were stationed at the point from which the older chiefs had decided that the swimmers must start. Who acts: swimmers. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Sons of Kii, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Sons of Kii, sentence 124

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Canoes were stationed at the point from which the older chiefs had decided that the swimmers must start.

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**Who acts:** swimmers · **What happens:** station, decide, start · **To what, where:** Canoes, point, older chiefs

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Sons of Kii. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (swimmers), 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:pg66357:7:124
# text = Canoes were stationed at the point from which the older chiefs had decided that the swimmers must start.
1	Canoes	canoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	stationed	station	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	obl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	amod	_	_
11	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	decided	decide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl:relcl	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	swimmers	swimmer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **station** | past · passive |  | Canoes |  | the point |  |  | vn put-9.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme at point=Destination |
| 2 | **decide** | past · perfect · passive |  | the older chiefs |  | the point |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Topic |
| 3 | **start** | must | the swimmers |  |  |  |  |  | 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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