---
title: The fact that Ka-meha-meha placed the English flag over his governme… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The fact that Ka-meha-meha placed the English flag over his government has sometimes been construed as a technical “cession of the islands to the English crown.” Who acts: Ka. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Hawaiian Flag, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Hawaiian Flag, sentence 14

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The fact that Ka-meha-meha placed the English flag over his government has sometimes been construed as a technical “cession of the islands to the English crown.”

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**Who acts:** Ka · **What happens:** place, construe, cede · **To what, where:** English flag, government, fact, islands

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Hawaiian Flag. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ka), 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:pg66357:22:14
# text = The fact that Ka-meha-meha placed the English flag over his government has sometimes been construed as a technical “cession of the islands to the English crown.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
4	Ka	Ka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	meha	meha	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	4	dep	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	meha	meha	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	4	dep	_	_
9	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	flag	flag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	over	over	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	19	advmod	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	construed	construe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	technical	technical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	cession	cession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	crown	crown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past | Ka | the English flag |  | Ka's government |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent flag=Theme over government=Destination |
| 2 | **construe** | present · perfect · passive |  | the fact |  |  |  | as a technical cession of the islands to the English crown; sometimes *property* | vn base-97.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **cede** *in a quote* |  |  | the islands to the English crown |  |  |  |  | nom cession «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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