---
title: He was a kupua—a being who could appear at will as an animal or man. — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: He was a kupua—a being who could appear at will as an animal or man. Who acts: puaa, kupua. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and Kama-puaa, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and Kama-puaa, sentence 4

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He was a kupua—a being who could appear at will as an animal or man.

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**Who acts:** puaa, kupua · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** kupua

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and Kama-puaa. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (puaa, kupua), 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:pg66516:11:4
# text = He was a kupua—a being who could appear at will as an animal or man.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	kupua	kupua	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	cop	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | puaa | a kupua |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | could · gerund | a kupua |  |  |  |  | as a animal or man; appear *property* | 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 Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Project Gutenberg book 66516 (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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