---
title: Sometimes captives were given the choice between allegiance or death… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes captives were given the choice between allegiance or death as a human sacrifice before the gods. 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 90

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Sometimes captives were given the choice between allegiance or death as a human sacrifice before the gods.

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**What happens:** give · **To what, where:** captives

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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: 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:pg66357:14:90
# text = Sometimes captives were given the choice between allegiance or death as a human sacrifice before the gods.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
2	captives	captive	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	choice	choice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	between	between	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	allegiance	allegiance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	sacrifice	sacrifice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past · passive |  | captives |  |  | before the gods | as a human sacrifice; the choice or death *obj*; sometimes *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient choice=Theme |

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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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