---
title: Among the Hawaiians the “Ahaalii” or “council of nobles” guarded the… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Among the Hawaiians the “Ahaalii” or “council of nobles” guarded the rank of each chief and assigned to him a place according to the purity of his blood-royal. Who acts: council. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, with its dependency tr
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 21

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Among the Hawaiians the “Ahaalii” or “council of nobles” guarded the rank of each chief and assigned to him a place according to the purity of his blood-royal.

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**Who acts:** council · **What happens:** guard, assign, accord · **To what, where:** rank, place, chief

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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 (council), 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:pg66357:18:21
# text = Among the Hawaiians the “Ahaalii” or “council of nobles” guarded the rank of each chief and assigned to him a place according to the purity of his blood-royal.
1	Among	among	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Hawaiians	Hawaiian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	6	compound	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Ahaalii	Ahaalii	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	council	council	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	nobles	noble	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
14	guarded	guard	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	rank	rank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
19	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	assigned	assign	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
26	according	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	case	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	purity	purity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
30	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
32	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guard** | past | council of nobles | the rank of each chief |  |  |  | among the Hawaiians Ahaalii | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rank=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **assign** | participle | council of nobles *not said here* | a place | chief |  |  | accord the purity | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent place=Theme to he=Goal |
| 3 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |

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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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