---
title: There was obstinate resistance, but the onset of the Hawaiian chiefs… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: There was obstinate resistance, but the onset of the Hawaiian chiefs was irresistible. Who acts: obstinate resistance, onset. 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 168

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There was obstinate resistance, but the onset of the Hawaiian chiefs was irresistible.

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**Who acts:** obstinate resistance, onset · **What happens:** be

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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 (obstinate resistance, onset), 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:pg66357:14:168
# text = There was obstinate resistance, but the onset of the Hawaiian chiefs was irresistible.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	obstinate	obstinate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	resistance	resistance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	onset	onset	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	Hawaiian	hawaiian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	irresistible	irresistible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | obstinate resistance |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the onset of the Hawaiian chiefs |  |  |  |  | irresistible *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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