---
title: The natives of New Zealand say: “Man may have descendants but the da… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The natives of New Zealand say: “Man may have descendants but the daughters of the night strangle his offspring”; and again: “Men make heroes, but death carries them away.” Who acts: natives, Man, daughters, Men. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui Seeking Immortali
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Maui Seeking Immortality, sentence 12

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The natives of New Zealand say: “Man may have descendants but the daughters of the night strangle his offspring”; and again: “Men make heroes, but death carries them away.”

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**Who acts:** natives, Man, daughters, Men, death · **What happens:** say, have, strangle, make, carry away · **To what, where:** descendants, offspring, heroes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui Seeking Immortality. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (natives, Man, daughters, Men), 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:pg66357:3:12
# text = The natives of New Zealand say: “Man may have descendants but the daughters of the night strangle his offspring”; and again: “Men make heroes, but death carries them away.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	natives	native	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	New	New	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	flat	_	_
5	Zealand	Zealand	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
12	descendants	descendant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	strangle	strangle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	offspring	offspring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
27	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
29	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
30	heroes	hero	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	carries	carry	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	away	away	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the natives of New Zealand |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | may | Man | descendants |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent descendant=Patient |
| 3 | **strangle** *in a quote* | infinitive | the daughters of the night | Man's offspring |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent offspring=Patient |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | present | Men | heroes |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hero=Product |
| 5 | **carry away** *in a quote* | present | death | heroes *= hero* |  |  |  | away *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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