---
title: It has always been the ambition of Hawaiian chiefs to excel in all a… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: It has always been the ambition of Hawaiian chiefs to excel in all athletic sports and warlike exercises. Who acts: part. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Laa From Tahiti, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Laa From Tahiti, sentence 17

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It has always been the ambition of Hawaiian chiefs to excel in all athletic sports and warlike exercises.

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**Who acts:** part · **What happens:** be, excel · **To what, where:** ambition, athletic sports

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Laa From Tahiti. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (part), 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:pg66357:10:17
# text = It has always been the ambition of Hawaiian chiefs to excel in all athletic sports and warlike exercises.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ambition	ambition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	Hawaiian	hawaiian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	excel	excel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
14	athletic	athletic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	sports	sport	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	warlike	warlike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	exercises	exercise	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present · perfect | part | the ambition |  |  |  | of Hawaiian chiefs; always *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **excel** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | all athletic sports and warlike exercises |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V PP.eventuality S\_ING»: agent=Agent in sport=Eventuality |

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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 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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