---
title: They timed their approach so that the shadows of the night were arou… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They timed their approach so that the shadows of the night were around them. Who acts: voyages. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Moi-keha, the Restless, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Moi-keha, the Restless, sentence 57

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They timed their approach so that the shadows of the night were around them.

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**Who acts:** voyages · **What happens:** time, approach, shadow · **To what, where:** approach, night

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Moi-keha, the Restless. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (voyages), 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:pg66357:9:57
# text = They timed their approach so that the shadows of the night were around them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	timed	time	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	approach	approach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	around	around	ADP	IN	_	2	obl	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **time** | past | voyages *= voyage* | voyages's approach |  |  |  |  | vn register-54.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent approach=Theme |
| 2 | **approach** |  | voyages *= voyage* |  |  |  |  |  | nom approach «act intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 3 | **shadow** |  |  | the night |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state 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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