---
title: He could not openly declare war against the priest, but he could com… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: He could not openly declare war against the priest, but he could command him to render assistance in worship and sacrifice. Who acts: king. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, In the Days of Kahahana, 1782, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, In the Days of Kahahana, 1782, sentence 32

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He could not openly declare war against the priest, but he could command him to render assistance in worship and sacrifice.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** not declare, command, render · **To what, where:** war, Kahahana, assistance, worship · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, In the Days of Kahahana, 1782. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg66357:15:32
# text = He could not openly declare war against the priest, but he could command him to render assistance in worship and sacrifice.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	openly	openly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	declare	declare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	against	against	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	command	command	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	render	render	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
18	assistance	assistance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	worship	worship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	sacrifice	sacrifice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **declare** *speech: other* | could | king | war |  |  |  | against the priest; openly *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent war=Attribute |
| 2 | **command** | could | king | Kahahana |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **render** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | assistance |  | worship and sacrifice |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent assistance=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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