---
title: He twisted her neck until she was half dead—then she cried out: “I h… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: He twisted her neck until she was half dead—then she cried out: “I have hidden the fire in a green stick.” Who acts: contest, experiment. 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 72

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He twisted her neck until she was half dead—then she cried out: “I have hidden the fire in a green stick.”

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**Who acts:** contest, experiment · **What happens:** twist, be, cry out, hide · **To what, where:** neck, fire, green stick · **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 (contest, experiment), 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:pg66357:2:72
# text = He twisted her neck until she was half dead—then she cried out: “I have hidden the fire in a green stick.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	twisted	twist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	9	advmod	_	_
9	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	hidden	hide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **twist** | past | contest | experiment's neck |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent neck=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | experiment |  |  |  |  | dead, half *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cry out** *speech: express* | past | experiment |  |  |  | then |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **hide** *in a quote* | present · perfect | experiment | the fire |  | a green stick |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent fire=Patient in stick=Location |

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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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