---
title: It seems that they argued that it was best for the wife to go if a s… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: It seems that they argued that it was best for the wife to go if a suitable return should be made in some way by the new King of Oahu. Who acts: It, consultations. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, King Kahahana, About 1773, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/13/12/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Historical Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/) / [King Kahahana, About 1773](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/13/) / 12

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, King Kahahana, About 1773, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seems that they argued that it was best for the wife to go if a suitable return should be made in some way by the new King of Oahu.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, consultations · **What happens:** seem, argue, be, go, make · **To what, where:** suitable return, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (It, consultations), 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 tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66357:13:12
# text = It seems that they argued that it was best for the wife to go if a suitable return should be made in some way by the new King of Oahu.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	argued	argue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	expl	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	ccomp	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	suitable	suitable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	Oahu	Oahu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | past | consultations *= consultation* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | for the wife; good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **make** *a condition, not said to happen* | should · passive |  | a suitable return |  | some way by the new King of Oahu |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

<!-- .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:** «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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/13/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/13/13/)
- ↑ back to [King Kahahana, About 1773](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/13/)