---
title: He named the island "Savage Island" because, as legend has it, the n… — Niue · tree and pragmatics
description: He named the island "Savage Island" because, as legend has it, the natives who "greeted" him were painted in what appeared to be blood. Who acts: Cook, legend, natives. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Niue» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Niue/28/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [wikipedia](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/) / [en](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/) / [Niue](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Niue/) / 28

# Niue, sentence 28

<!-- div src -->

From Wikipedia, [«Niue»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niue), revision of the 2026-09-01 dump, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). The trees and pragmatics of these pages, Mova's parse of that text, are CC BY-SA 4.0 too.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He named the island "Savage Island" because, as legend has it, the natives who "greeted" him were painted in what appeared to be blood.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Cook, legend, natives · **What happens:** name, have, greet, paint, appear, be · **To what, where:** island, permission, Cook, natives, blood

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Niue». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cook, legend, natives), 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 article's note marks are left out of the parse.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = wikipedia:Niue:28
# text = He named the island "Savage Island" because, as legend has it, the natives who "greeted" him were painted in what appeared to be blood.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	named	name	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Savage	Savage	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Island	Island	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
9	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	legend	legend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	natives	native	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	greeted	greet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	painted	paint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	parataxis	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	obl	_	_
27	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
30	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **name** | past | Cook | the island |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent island=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | present | legend | permission |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **greet** *speech: greet* *in a quote* | past | the natives |  | Cook |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **paint** | past · passive |  | the natives |  |  |  | what *obl* | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme PP.destination»: subject=Theme in what=Destination |
| 5 | **appear** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | blood |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** the English Wikipedia, «Niue», revision of the 2026-09-01 dump, CC BY-SA 4.0. **Tree:** Mova's own parse, CC BY-SA 4.0 as the text is. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the article read in order, CC BY-SA 4.0.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Niue/27/)
- next →: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Niue/29/)
- ↑ back to [Niue](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Niue/)