---
title: The words are peculiar, “If the people of any village, township, dis… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The words are peculiar, “If the people of any village, township, district, or state consider themselves afflicted by any particular evils in consequence of there being no law which is applicable ... then they may devise a law which will remedy their difficulties. Who acts: words, law. A sentence of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/21/88/)

<!-- 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 First Constitution](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/21/) / 88

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The First Constitution, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The words are peculiar, “If the people of any village, township, district, or state consider themselves afflicted by any particular evils in consequence of there being no law which is applicable ... then they may devise a law which will remedy their difficulties.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** words, law · **What happens:** be, consider, afflict, devise, remedy · **To what, where:** peculiar, words, law, difficulties · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (words, law), 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:pg66357:21:88
# text = The words are peculiar, “If the people of any village, township, district, or state consider themselves afflicted by any particular evils in consequence of there being no law which is applicable ... then they may devise a law which will remedy their difficulties.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	peculiar	peculiar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	appos	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	township	township	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	district	district	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	consider	consider	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
21	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obj	_	_
22	afflicted	afflict	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	xcomp	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	det	_	_
25	particular	particular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	evils	evil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	consequence	consequence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	33	expl	_	_
31	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	cop	_	_
32	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	33	det	_	_
33	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
34	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	_
35	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
36	applicable	applicable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	acl:relcl	_	_
37	...	...	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	41	advmod	_	_
39	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	devise	devise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	46	nsubj	_	_
45	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	remedy	remedy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	acl:relcl	_	_
47	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	difficulties	difficulty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the words | peculiar |  |  |  | the people of any village and township and district *appos* | tree rules |
| 2 | **consider** *in a quote* | present |  | words *= word* |  |  |  | state *compound* | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent themselves=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 3 | **afflict** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | by any particular evils in consequence | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  | there |  | of no law | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | no law |  |  |  |  | applicable *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **devise** *in a quote* | may | law | a law |  |  | then |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent law=Patient |
| 7 | **remedy** *in a quote* | future | a law | law's difficulties |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent difficulty=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 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/21/87/)
- next →: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/21/89/)
- ↑ back to [The First Constitution](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/21/)