---
title: The chiefs were very strenuous in upholding the dignity of their cas… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The chiefs were very strenuous in upholding the dignity of their caste. Who acts: chiefs. 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 120

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The chiefs were very strenuous in upholding the dignity of their caste.

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**Who acts:** chiefs · **What happens:** be, uphold · **To what, where:** dignity

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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 (chiefs), 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:pg66357:18:120
# text = The chiefs were very strenuous in upholding the dignity of their caste.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	strenuous	strenuous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	upholding	uphold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dignity	dignity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	caste	caste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the chiefs |  |  |  |  | strenuous *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **uphold** | gerund | the chiefs *not said here* | the dignity of fishermen's caste |  |  |  |  | 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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