---
title: If a penalty is affixed that is absolute law.” — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: If a penalty is affixed that is absolute law.” Who acts: that. 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 83

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If a penalty is affixed that is absolute law.”

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**Who acts:** that · **What happens:** affix, be · **To what, where:** penalty, absolute law

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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 (that), 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:pg66357:21:83
# text = If a penalty is affixed that is absolute law.”
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	penalty	penalty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	affixed	affix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	absolute	absolute	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **affix** | present · passive |  | a penalty |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | present | that | absolute law |  |  |  |  | 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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