---
title: It should be said that during preceding centuries each high chief ha… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: It should be said that during preceding centuries each high chief had carried a pennant of coloured native cloth at the masthead of his double war canoe, but these were individual and family rather than national banners. Who acts: these. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervel
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Hawaiian Flag, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It should be said that during preceding centuries each high chief had carried a pennant of coloured native cloth at the masthead of his double war canoe, but these were individual and family rather than national banners.

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**Who acts:** these · **What happens:** say, precede, carry, be · **To what, where:** guardianship, high chief, masthead · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (these), 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:pg66357:22:18
# text = It should be said that during preceding centuries each high chief had carried a pennant of coloured native cloth at the masthead of his double war canoe, but these were individual and family rather than national banners.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
6	during	during	ADP	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	preceding	precede	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
8	centuries	century	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	det	_	_
10	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	carried	carry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	pennant	pennant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	coloured	coloured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	masthead	masthead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
25	double	double	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	32	nsubj	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	individual	individual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	_
35	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	38	cc	_	_
36	than	than	ADP	IN	_	35	fixed	_	_
37	national	national	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	banners	banner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | should · passive |  | guardianship |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **precede** | gerund |  |  |  |  | century |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **carry** | past · perfect · passive |  | each high chief |  | the masthead of Vancouver's double war canoe |  | a pennant of coloured native cloth *obj* | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary pennant=Value |
| 4 | **is** | past | these |  |  |  |  | family *conj*; national banners *conj*; individual *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

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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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