---
title: Then she told him to rub reeds together—but they bent and broke and… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Then she told him to rub reeds together—but they bent and broke and he could make no fire. Who acts: experiment, reeds, contest. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui the Polynesian, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Maui the Polynesian, sentence 71

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Then she told him to rub reeds together—but they bent and broke and he could make no fire.

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**Who acts:** experiment, reeds, contest · **What happens:** tell, rub, bend, break, make · **To what, where:** contest, reeds, fire · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui the Polynesian. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (experiment, reeds, contest), 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:pg66357:2:71
# text = Then she told him to rub reeds together—but they bent and broke and he could make no fire.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	rub	rub	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	reeds	reed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	together	together	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	bent	bend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | experiment |  | contest |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **rub** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | experiment *not said here* | reeds |  |  |  | together *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent reed=Theme |
| 3 | **bend** | past | reeds *= reed* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **break** | past | reeds *= reed* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **make** | could | contest | no fire |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=Product |

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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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