---
title: This was no small task and was absolutely necessary as the foundatio… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: This was no small task and was absolutely necessary as the foundation of a written language. Who acts: This. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, First Hawaiian Printing, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, First Hawaiian Printing, sentence 18

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This was no small task and was absolutely necessary as the foundation of a written language.

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**Who acts:** This · **What happens:** be, write · **To what, where:** small task

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, First Hawaiian Printing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This), 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:pg66357:20:18
# text = This was no small task and was absolutely necessary as the foundation of a written language.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
4	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	absolutely	absolutely	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	necessary	necessary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	foundation	foundation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | This | no small task |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | This *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as the foundation of a written language; absolutely, necessary *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **write** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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