---
title: “It was said that certain chiefs were so tabu that they did not show… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “It was said that certain chiefs were so tabu that they did not show themselves abroad by day.” Who acts: certain chiefs. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Alapa Regiment, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Alapa Regiment, sentence 105

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“It was said that certain chiefs were so tabu that they did not show themselves abroad by day.”

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**Who acts:** certain chiefs · **What happens:** say, not be · **To what, where:** dust · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Alapa Regiment. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (certain chiefs), 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:pg66357:14:105
# text = “It was said that certain chiefs were so tabu that they did not show themselves abroad by day.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
6	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
10	tabu	tabu	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
16	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obj	_	_
17	abroad	abroad	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past · passive |  | dust |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past · do-support | certain chiefs |  |  |  | day | tabu *nsubj*; records *= record* *nsubj*; abroad, show *property* | tree rules |

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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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