---
title: They waged war among themselves when they could not attack the neigh… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They waged war among themselves when they could not attack the neighbouring islands. Who acts: bands. 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 216

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They waged war among themselves when they could not attack the neighbouring islands.

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**Who acts:** bands · **What happens:** wage, not attack · **To what, where:** war, neighbouring islands

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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 (bands), 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:pg66357:14:216
# text = They waged war among themselves when they could not attack the neighbouring islands.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	waged	wage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	among	among	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obl	_	_
6	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	attack	attack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	neighbouring	neighbouring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wage** | past | bands *= band* | war |  |  |  | among bands *= band* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **attack** | could | bands *= band* | the neighbouring islands |  |  |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent island=Patient |

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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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