---
title: Kupuas were legendary monsters which could change themselves into hu… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: Kupuas were legendary monsters which could change themselves into human beings at will. Who acts: Kupuas, legendary monsters. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/19/1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mytholo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/) / [Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/19/) / 1

# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Kupuas were legendary monsters which could change themselves into human beings at will.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Kupuas, legendary monsters · **What happens:** be, change · **To what, where:** legendary monsters, monsters, human beings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kupuas, legendary monsters), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66516:19:1
# text = Kupuas were legendary monsters which could change themselves into human beings at will.
1	Kupuas	Kupuas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	legendary	legendary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	monsters	monster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Kupuas | legendary monsters |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **change** | could | legendary monsters | monsters *= monster* |  |  |  | into human beings *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient into being=Result |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Hiiaka Catching a Ghost, 98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/18/98/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/19/2/)
- ↑ back to [Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/19/)