---
title: He thought he was flying in a straight line, but one arm became tire… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought he was flying in a straight line, but one arm became tired because the stick was under it. Who acts: god, one arm, stick. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Water of Life [1], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Water of Life \[1\], sentence 108

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He thought he was flying in a straight line, but one arm became tired because the stick was under it.

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**Who acts:** god, one arm, stick · **What happens:** think, fly, become, be · **To what, where:** straight line, stick · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Water of Life \[1\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (god, one arm, stick), 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:pg66357:4:108
# text = He thought he was flying in a straight line, but one arm became tired because the stick was under it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	straight	straight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
16	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	under	under	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | god |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **fly** | past · progressive | god |  |  | a straight line |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent in line=Location |
| 3 | **become** | past | one arm |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | the stick |  |  | stick |  |  | tree rules |

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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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