---
title: That some of the lower classes should have struck their highest chie… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: That some of the lower classes should have struck their highest chief was sufficient ground for killing any of his companions who had failed to protect him even at the cost of their own lives. Who acts: highest chief, companions. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The L
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/122/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Law of the Splintered Paddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/) / 122

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 122

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
That some of the lower classes should have struck their highest chief was sufficient ground for killing any of his companions who had failed to protect him even at the cost of their own lives.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** highest chief, companions · **What happens:** strike, be, kill, fail, protect, cost · **To what, where:** some, sufficient ground, any, chief, own lives

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (highest chief, companions), 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:pg66357:18:122
# text = That some of the lower classes should have struck their highest chief was sufficient ground for killing any of his companions who had failed to protect him even at the cost of their own lives.
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	_
2	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	lower	low	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	amod	_	_
6	classes	class	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux	_	_
9	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	highest	high	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	amod	_	_
12	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	sufficient	sufficient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	killing	kill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
18	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	failed	fail	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	protect	protect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	even	even	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	cost	cost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | should · perfect · passive |  | some  That of the lower classes |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | classes's highest chief | sufficient ground |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **kill** | gerund |  | any of chief's companions |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Theme |
| 4 | **fail** | past · perfect | chief's companions |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **protect** | to-infinitive | chief's companions *not said here* | chief |  |  |  | the cost of classes's own lives *obj* | tree rules |
| 6 | **cost** |  |  | classes's own lives |  |  |  |  | nom cost «possession transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/121/)
- next →: [sentence 123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/123/)
- ↑ back to [The Law of the Splintered Paddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/)