---
title: Referring to the legends, he cried: “It is said of old that the sky… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Referring to the legends, he cried: “It is said of old that the sky comes close to Hana, but I find it very high. Who acts: god, sky. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Red Mouth Gun, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Red Mouth Gun, sentence 43

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Referring to the legends, he cried: “It is said of old that the sky comes close to Hana, but I find it very high.

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**Who acts:** god, sky · **What happens:** refer, cry, say, come, find · **To what, where:** fort · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Red Mouth Gun. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (god, sky), 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:pg66357:17:43
# text = Referring to the legends, he cried: “It is said of old that the sky comes close to Hana, but I find it very high.
1	Referring	refer	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obl	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
19	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Hana	Hana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	find	find	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refer** | gerund | god *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the legends | vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to legend=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | god |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present · passive |  | fort |  |  |  | of old | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | present | the sky |  |  |  |  | close *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **find** *in a quote* | present | god | fort |  |  |  | high *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

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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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