---
title: Alexander says: “It was death for a common man to remain standing at… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Alexander says: “It was death for a common man to remain standing at the mention of the king’s name.” Who acts: Alexander, tabu, king. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Alapa Regiment, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/14/106/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Alapa Regiment](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/14/) / 106

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Alapa Regiment, sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Alexander says: “It was death for a common man to remain standing at the mention of the king’s name.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Alexander, tabu, king · **What happens:** say, be, remain, stand, mention, name · **To what, where:** death, mention, name · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Alexander, tabu, king), 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:pg66357:14:106
# text = Alexander says: “It was death for a common man to remain standing at the mention of the king’s name.”
1	Alexander	Alexander	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
14	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	xcomp	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	mention	mention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Alexander |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | tabu | death |  |  |  | for a common man | tree rules |
| 3 | **remain** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **stand** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  | the mention of the king's name |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at mention=Location |
| 5 | **mention** *in a quote* |  |  | the king's name |  |  |  |  | nom mention «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **name** *in a quote* |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/14/105/)
- next →: [sentence 107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/14/107/)
- ↑ back to [The Alapa Regiment](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/14/)