---
title: The agile chief, fettered as he was, avoided the thrusts, but the st… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The agile chief, fettered as he was, avoided the thrusts, but the steersman was awkward. Who acts: chief, agile chief, steersman. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 113

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The agile chief, fettered as he was, avoided the thrusts, but the steersman was awkward.

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**Who acts:** chief, agile chief, steersman · **What happens:** fetter, be, avoid · **To what, where:** agile chief, thrusts

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chief, agile chief, steersman), 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:pg66357:18:113
# text = The agile chief, fettered as he was, avoided the thrusts, but the steersman was awkward.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	agile	agile	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	fettered	fetter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	avoided	avoid	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	thrusts	thrust	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	steersman	steersman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	awkward	awkward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fetter** | participle |  | the agile chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **be** | past | chief |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **avoid** | past | the agile chief | the thrusts |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent thrust=Location |
| 4 | **is** | past | the steersman |  |  |  |  | awkward *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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