---
title: Maui once said to the goddess of the moon: “Let death be short. — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Maui once said to the goddess of the moon: “Let death be short. Who acts: Maui, death. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui Seeking Immortality, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Maui Seeking Immortality, sentence 13

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Maui once said to the goddess of the moon: “Let death be short.

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**Who acts:** Maui, death · **What happens:** say, let, be · **To what, where:** goddess, death · **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 (Maui, death), 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:pg66357:3:13
# text = Maui once said to the goddess of the moon: “Let death be short.
1	Maui	Maui	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	goddess	goddess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
13	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Maui |  | the goddess of the moon |  |  | once *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to goddess=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | death |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** *in a quote* | infinitive | death *not said here* |  |  |  |  | short *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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