---
title: She had many suitors among the young chiefs, but could not decide up… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: She had many suitors among the young chiefs, but could not decide upon the one highest in her esteem. Who acts: Puna. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Moi-keha, the Restless, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Moi-keha, the Restless, sentence 71

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She had many suitors among the young chiefs, but could not decide upon the one highest in her esteem.

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**Who acts:** Puna · **What happens:** have, not decide, esteem · **To what, where:** many suitors

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Moi-keha, the Restless. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Puna), 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:pg66357:9:71
# text = She had many suitors among the young chiefs, but could not decide upon the one highest in her esteem.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	suitors	suitor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	among	among	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	decide	decide	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	highest	high	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	esteem	esteem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Puna | many suitors |  |  |  | among the young chiefs | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent suitor=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **decide** | could |  |  |  |  |  | upon the one | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **esteem** |  | Puna |  |  |  |  |  | nom esteem «state transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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