---
title: “We asked the natives with us to tell us what they knew of the histo… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: “We asked the natives with us to tell us what they knew of the history of this volcano. Who acts: We, natives. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Changes in Kilauea Crater, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Changes in Kilauea Crater, sentence 14

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“We asked the natives with us to tell us what they knew of the history of this volcano.

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**Who acts:** We, natives · **What happens:** ask, tell, know · **To what, where:** natives, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Changes in Kilauea Crater. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, natives), 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:pg66516:28:14
# text = “We asked the natives with us to tell us what they knew of the history of this volcano.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	natives	native	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	obj	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	volcano	volcano	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | past | We | the natives |  |  |  | with us | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent native=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | the natives *not said here* |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent we=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **know** *in a quote* | past | natives *= native* |  |  |  |  | of the history of this volcano; what *obj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |

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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 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.

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