---
title: The white men in Ka-meha-meha’s court do not keep tabu, nor do they… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The white men in Ka-meha-meha’s court do not keep tabu, nor do they die. Who acts: meha court, men. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Last of the Tabu, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Last of the Tabu, sentence 34

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The white men in Ka-meha-meha’s court do not keep tabu, nor do they die.

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**Who acts:** meha court, men · **What happens:** not keep, die · **To what, where:** tabu

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Last of the Tabu. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (meha court, men), 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:pg66357:19:34
# text = The white men in Ka-meha-meha’s court do not keep tabu, nor do they die.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Ka	Ka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	meha	meha	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	meha	meha	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	7	flat:foreign	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
11	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	do	do	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
15	tabu	tabu	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	20	cc	_	_
18	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **keep** | infinitive · do-support | meha court | tabu |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tabu=Theme |
| 2 | **die** | present · do-support | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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