---
title: “Formerly the chief could call the people from one end of the island… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “Formerly the chief could call the people from one end of the islands to the other to perform labour.” Who acts: chief. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The First Constitution, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The First Constitution, sentence 109

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“Formerly the chief could call the people from one end of the islands to the other to perform labour.”

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**Who acts:** chief · **What happens:** call, perform · **To what, where:** people, one end, labour · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The First Constitution. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chief), 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:pg66357:21:109
# text = “Formerly the chief could call the people from one end of the islands to the other to perform labour.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Formerly	formerly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	perform	perform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** *in a quote* | could | the chief | the people |  |  | from one end of the islands | to the other; formerly *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent people=Theme from end=Source |
| 2 | **perform** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the chief *not said here* | labour |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent labour=Theme |

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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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