---
title: Often the chiefs preferred the carefully kept, grass-covered, smooth… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Often the chiefs preferred the carefully kept, grass-covered, smooth hillside where but few marks of sleds appeared. Who acts: chiefs, few marks. 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 166

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Often the chiefs preferred the carefully kept, grass-covered, smooth hillside where but few marks of sleds appeared.

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**Who acts:** chiefs, few marks · **What happens:** prefer, keep, cover, appear, mark · **To what, where:** smooth hillside, sleds

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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 (chiefs, few marks), 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:pg66357:7:166
# text = Often the chiefs preferred the carefully kept, grass-covered, smooth hillside where but few marks of sleds appeared.
1	Often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	preferred	prefer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	hillside	hillside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	21	advmod	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	marks	mark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	sleds	sled	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
21	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prefer** | past | the chiefs |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **keep** | participle | the chiefs *not said here* |  |  |  |  | carefully *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **cover** | participle | the chiefs *not said here* | smooth hillside |  |  |  | grass *compound* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **appear** | past | few marks of sleds |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **mark** |  |  | sleds |  |  |  |  | nom mark «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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