---
title: He told her he had been fishing when a great kupua came in the form… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: He told her he had been fishing when a great kupua came in the form of a mighty wave falling upon the boat, filling it full of water. Who acts: water, great kupua, mighty wave. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka Catching a Ghost, with its dependency
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Hiiaka Catching a Ghost, sentence 90

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He told her he had been fishing when a great kupua came in the form of a mighty wave falling upon the boat, filling it full of water.

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**Who acts:** water, great kupua, mighty wave · **What happens:** tell, be, come, fall, fill, form · **To what, where:** breath, fishing, form, boat, kupua, mighty wave · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka Catching a Ghost. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water, great kupua, mighty wave), 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:pg66516:18:90
# text = He told her he had been fishing when a great kupua came in the form of a mighty wave falling upon the boat, filling it full of water.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
7	fishing	fishing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
8	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	kupua	kupua	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	wave	wave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	filling	fill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | water |  | breath |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | past · perfect | water | fishing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | past | a great kupua |  |  | the form of a mighty wave |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in form=Location |
| 4 | **fall** | gerund | a mighty wave *not said here* |  |  | the boat |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon boat=Location |
| 5 | **fill** | gerund | a mighty wave *not said here* | kupua |  |  |  | full *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 6 | **form** |  |  | a mighty wave |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 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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