---
title: He understood the dread power of “praying to death,” a power which c… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: He understood the dread power of “praying to death,” a power which causes even the intelligent natives of the twentieth century to tremble. Who acts: Wai, dread power, power. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, In the Days of Kahahana, 1782, with its dependency tree and 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/15/40/)

<!-- 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/) / [In the Days of Kahahana, 1782](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/15/) / 40

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, In the Days of Kahahana, 1782, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He understood the dread power of “praying to death,” a power which causes even the intelligent natives of the twentieth century to tremble.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Wai, dread power, power · **What happens:** understand, pray, cause, tremble · **To what, where:** dread power, intelligent natives · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Wai, dread power, power), 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:pg66357:15:40
# text = He understood the dread power of “praying to death,” a power which causes even the intelligent natives of the twentieth century to tremble.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	dread	dread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	praying	pray	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	causes	cause	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	even	even	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	intelligent	intelligent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	natives	native	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	twentieth	twentieth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	century	century	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	tremble	tremble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **understand** | past | Wai | the dread power |  |  |  | a power *parataxis* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer power=Stimulus |
| 2 | **pray** *in a quote* | gerund | the dread power *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to death | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **cause** | present | a power | the intelligent natives of the twentieth century |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition native=Patient |
| 4 | **tremble** | to-infinitive | a power *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/15/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/15/41/)
- ↑ back to [In the Days of Kahahana, 1782](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/15/)