---
title: It was made by cutting out the pithy heart of a section of a large c… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: It was made by cutting out the pithy heart of a section of a large cocoanut tree, and thinning the shell as far as safety would allow. Who acts: safety. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Laa From Tahiti, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/10/41/)

<!-- 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/) / [Laa From Tahiti](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/10/) / 41

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Laa From Tahiti, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was made by cutting out the pithy heart of a section of a large cocoanut tree, and thinning the shell as far as safety would allow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** safety · **What happens:** make, cut out, thin, allow, section · **To what, where:** drum, pithy heart, shell, large cocoanut tree

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Laa From Tahiti. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (safety), 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:pg66357:10:41
# text = It was made by cutting out the pithy heart of a section of a large cocoanut tree, and thinning the shell as far as safety would allow.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	cutting	cut	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	pithy	pithy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	section	section	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	cocoanut	cocoanut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	thinning	thin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past · passive |  | drum |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **cut out** | gerund |  | the pithy heart of a section of a large cocoanut tree |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector heart=Eventuality |
| 3 | **thin** | gerund |  | the shell |  |  |  | far *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent shell=Patient |
| 4 | **allow** | would | safety |  |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Causer |
| 5 | **section** |  |  | a large cocoanut tree |  |  |  |  | nom section «communication transitive»: of=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 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/10/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/10/42/)
- ↑ back to [Laa From Tahiti](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/10/)