---
title: Her sharp, obsidian teeth closed with a snap upon Maui, cutting his… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Her sharp, obsidian teeth closed with a snap upon Maui, cutting his body in the centre. 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 45

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Her sharp, obsidian teeth closed with a snap upon Maui, cutting his body in the centre.

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**What happens:** close, cut · **To what, where:** sharp obsidian teeth, body, centre

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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: 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:pg66357:3:45
# text = Her sharp, obsidian teeth closed with a snap upon Maui, cutting his body in the centre.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
2	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	obsidian	obsidian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
6	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	snap	snap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Maui	Maui	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	cutting	cut	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	conj	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	centre	centre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **close** | participle |  | Hine's sharp obsidian teeth *not said here* |  |  |  | with a snap upon Maui | vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with snap=Theme |
| 2 | **cut** | gerund |  | Maui's body |  | the centre |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset body=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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