---
title: His power to fulfil his agreement depended upon the willingness of t… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: His power to fulfil his agreement depended upon the willingness of the council of high chiefs to ratify what he had promised. Who acts: power, Kahahana. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, King Kahahana, About 1773, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, King Kahahana, About 1773, sentence 46

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His power to fulfil his agreement depended upon the willingness of the council of high chiefs to ratify what he had promised.

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**Who acts:** power, Kahahana · **What happens:** fulfil, depend, ratify, promise, agree · **To what, where:** agreement

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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 (power, Kahahana), 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:pg66357:13:46
# text = His power to fulfil his agreement depended upon the willingness of the council of high chiefs to ratify what he had promised.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	fulfil	fulfil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	agreement	agreement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	depended	depend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	willingness	willingness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	council	council	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	ratify	ratify	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fulfil** | to-infinitive | Kahahana's power *not said here* | Kahahana's agreement |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **depend** | past | Kahahana's power |  |  |  |  | upon the willingness of the council of high chiefs | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ratify** | to-infinitive | Kahahana's power *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past · perfect | Kahahana |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 5 | **agree** |  | Kahahana |  |  |  |  |  | nom agreement «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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