---
title: He had a wooden dagger as his only weapon, but could not get near en… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: He had a wooden dagger as his only weapon, but could not get near enough to the giant to use it. Who acts: Kau. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and the Owl Ghost-god, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and the Owl Ghost-god, sentence 18

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He had a wooden dagger as his only weapon, but could not get near enough to the giant to use it.

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**Who acts:** Kau · **What happens:** have, not get, use · **To what, where:** wooden dagger, dagger

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and the Owl Ghost-god. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kau), 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:pg66516:6:18
# text = He had a wooden dagger as his only weapon, but could not get near enough to the giant to use it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	dagger	dagger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	weapon	weapon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
15	near	near	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Kau | a wooden dagger |  |  |  | as Kau's only weapon | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dagger=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **get** | could | Kau *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the giant *result*; near *property* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to giant=Result |
| 3 | **use** | to-infinitive | Kau *not said here* | dagger |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

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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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