Hawaiian Historical Legends, King Kahahana, About 1773, sentence 65
The high priest argued that the chiefs could not afford to give these war drums to Kahekili because the favour and protection of the war gods belonged to the king who could call them by the beating of the drums.
Who acts: high priest, chiefs, favour, king · What happens: argue, not afford, give, belong, call, favour · To what, where: war drums, Kahekili, drums, war gods · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, King Kahahana, About 1773. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (high priest, chiefs, favour, king), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 priest | det |
| 2 | high | high | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 priest | amod |
| 3 | priest | priest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 argued | nsubj |
| 4 | argued | argue | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 afford | mark |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 chiefs | det |
| 7 | chiefs | chief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 afford | nsubj |
| 8 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 10 afford | aux |
| 9 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 10 afford | advmod |
| 10 | afford | afford | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 argued | advcl |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 give | mark |
| 12 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 afford | xcomp |
| 13 | these | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 15 drums | det |
| 14 | war | war | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 drums | compound |
| 15 | drums | drum | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 give | obj |
| 16 | to | to | ADP | _ | 17 Kahekili | case |
| 17 | Kahekili | Kahekili | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 drums | nmod |
| 18 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 27 belonged | mark |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 favour | det |
| 20 | favour | favour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 belonged | nsubj |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 protection | cc |
| 22 | protection | protection | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 favour | conj |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 gods | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 gods | det |
| 25 | war | war | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 gods | compound |
| 26 | gods | god | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 favour | nmod |
| 27 | belonged | belong | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 give | advcl |
| 28 | to | to | ADP | _ | 30 king | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 king | det |
| 30 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 belonged | obl |
| 31 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 33 call | nsubj |
| 32 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 call | aux |
| 33 | call | call | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 king | acl:relcl |
| 34 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 call | obj |
| 35 | by | by | ADP | _ | 37 beating | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 beating | det |
| 37 | beating | beating | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 call | obl |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 40 drums | case |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 drums | det |
| 40 | drums | drum | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 beating | nmod |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 argued | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | argue speech: disagree | past | the high priest | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | not afford | could | the chiefs | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | give | to-infinitive | the chiefs not said here | this war drums | Kahekili | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent drum=Theme to kahekili=Recipient | |||
| 4 | belong | past | the favour of the war gods and protection | to the king | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | call | could | the king | drums = drum | by the beating of the drums | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient | |||
| 6 | favour | the war gods | nom favour «feeling transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 7 | beat | the drums | nom beating «act transitive»: of=patient |
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.
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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