---
title: A terrific beating of drums followed, the people fell upon their fac… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: A terrific beating of drums followed, the people fell upon their faces; even the high chiefs prostrated themselves. Who acts: terrific beating, high chiefs. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Sons of Kii, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Sons of Kii, sentence 42

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A terrific beating of drums followed, the people fell upon their faces; even the high chiefs prostrated themselves.

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**Who acts:** terrific beating, high chiefs · **What happens:** follow, fall, prostrate, beat · **To what, where:** drums, faces, chiefs

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Sons of Kii. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (terrific beating, high chiefs), 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:pg66357:7:42
# text = A terrific beating of drums followed, the people fell upon their faces; even the high chiefs prostrated themselves.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	terrific	terrific	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	beating	beating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	drums	drum	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
6	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	even	even	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	prostrated	prostrate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
20	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | participle |  | drums *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | past | a terrific beating of drums |  |  | people's faces |  | the people *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon face=Location |
| 3 | **prostrate** | past | the high chiefs | chiefs *= chief* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **beat** |  |  | drums |  |  |  |  | nom beating «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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