Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 122

That some of the lower classes should have struck their highest chief was sufficient ground for killing any of his companions who had failed to protect him even at the cost of their own lives.

Who acts: highest chief, companions · What happens: strike, be, kill, fail, protect, cost · To what, where: some, sufficient ground, any, chief, own lives

This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (highest chief, companions), 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	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 some	nsubj
2	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	9 struck	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 classes	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 classes	det
5	lower	low	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 classes	amod
6	classes	class	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 some	nmod
7	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 struck	aux
8	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 struck	aux
9	struck	strike	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 chief	nmod:poss
11	highest	high	ADJ	Degree=Sup	12 chief	amod
12	chief	chief	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 ground	nsubj
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 ground	cop
14	sufficient	sufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 ground	amod
15	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 struck	obl
16	for	for	SCONJ	_	17 killing	mark
17	killing	kill	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 struck	advcl
18	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	17 killing	obj
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 companions	case
20	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 companions	nmod:poss
21	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 any	nmod
22	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	24 failed	nsubj
23	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 failed	aux
24	failed	fail	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	21 companions	acl:relcl
25	to	to	PART	_	26 protect	mark
26	protect	protect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	24 failed	advcl
27	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 protect	obj
28	even	even	ADV	_	31 cost	advmod
29	at	at	ADP	_	31 cost	case
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 cost	det
31	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 protect	obj
32	of	of	ADP	_	35 lives	case
33	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	35 lives	nmod:poss
34	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	35 lives	amod
35	lives	life	NOUN	Number=Plur	31 cost	nmod
36	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 struck	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	strike	should · perfect · passive		some That of the lower classes		vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	is a	past	classes's highest chief	sufficient ground		tree rules
3	kill	gerund		any of chief's companions		vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Theme
4	fail	past · perfect	chief's companions			vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	protect	to-infinitive	chief's companions not said here	chief	the cost of classes's own lives obj	tree rules
6	cost			classes's own lives		nom cost «possession 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/122/

🌲 Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 122

The tree

Pragmatics

Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 122