---
title: Fathers and mothers readily gave away their babes, or slew them with… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Fathers and mothers readily gave away their babes, or slew them with their own hands. Who acts: Fathers. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Paao From Samoa, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Paao From Samoa, sentence 42

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Fathers and mothers readily gave away their babes, or slew them with their own hands.

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**Who acts:** Fathers · **What happens:** give away, slay · **To what, where:** babes

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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 (Fathers), 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:pg66357:8:42
# text = Fathers and mothers readily gave away their babes, or slew them with their own hands.
1	Fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	conj	_	_
4	readily	readily	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	away	away	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	babes	babe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	slew	slay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give away** | past | Fathers and mothers | mothers's babes |  |  |  | away, readily *property* | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent babe=Theme |
| 2 | **slay** | past | Fathers and mothers *not said here* | babes *= babe* |  |  |  | with babes's own hands | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Patient with hand=Instrument |

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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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