---
title: The steersmen unconsciously changed the course of the boats toward t… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The steersmen unconsciously changed the course of the boats toward the blue haze of land outlined by the dawn. Who acts: steersmen, land. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Paao From Samoa, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/8/127/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Historical Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/) / [Paao From Samoa](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/8/) / 127

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Paao From Samoa, sentence 127

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The steersmen unconsciously changed the course of the boats toward the blue haze of land outlined by the dawn.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** steersmen, land · **What happens:** change, outline, haze · **To what, where:** course, land

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Paao From Samoa. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (steersmen, land), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66357:8:127
# text = The steersmen unconsciously changed the course of the boats toward the blue haze of land outlined by the dawn.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	steersmen	steersman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	unconsciously	unconsciously	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	changed	change	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	boats	boat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	haze	haze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	outlined	outline	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	dawn	dawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | past | the steersmen | the course of the boats toward the blue haze of land |  |  |  | unconsciously *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Patient |
| 2 | **outline** *speech: other* | participle |  | land *not said here* |  |  | dawn |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **haze** |  | land |  |  |  |  |  | nom haze «phenomenon intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/8/126/)
- next →: [sentence 128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/8/128/)
- ↑ back to [Paao From Samoa](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/8/)