---
title: There the chiefs took their hula-drums and sat down preparing to pla… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: There the chiefs took their hula-drums and sat down preparing to play for the dancers. Who acts: chiefs. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele’s Long Sleep, 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/pg66516/14/107/)

<!-- 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 Legends of Volcanoes (mytholo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/) / [Pele’s Long Sleep](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/14/) / 107

# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele’s Long Sleep, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There the chiefs took their hula-drums and sat down preparing to play for the dancers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** chiefs · **What happens:** take, sit down, prepare, play · **To what, where:** hula drums

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele’s Long Sleep. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chiefs), 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:pg66516:14:107
# text = There the chiefs took their hula-drums and sat down preparing to play for the dancers.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
6	hula	hula	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	drums	drum	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	preparing	prepare	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	dancers	dancer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the chiefs | Pele's hula drums |  | there |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent drum=Theme |
| 2 | **sit down** | past | the chiefs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **prepare** | gerund | the chiefs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **play** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the chiefs *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the dancers | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent for dancer=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Project Gutenberg book 66516 (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 106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/14/106/)
- next →: [sentence 108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/14/108/)
- ↑ back to [Pele’s Long Sleep](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/14/)