Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 17
The lava-builded, notched and caverned walls of the Sugarloaf shoot up above us just here like a parapet, in regularly marked layers; tufts of flax and tussock and wiry veronica beard the face of the old fire-cliffs.
Who acts: lava, walls, tufts · What happens: builde, notch, cavern, shoot up, mark, beard · To what, where: lava, marked layers, face
This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lava, walls, tufts), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 lava | det |
| 2 | lava | lava | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 notched | nsubj |
| 3 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 4 builded | punct |
| 4 | builded | builde | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 lava | acl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 lava | punct |
| 6 | notched | notch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 caverned | cc |
| 8 | caverned | cavern | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 notched | conj |
| 9 | walls | wall | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 shoot | nsubj |
| 10 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 Sugarloaf | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 Sugarloaf | det |
| 12 | Sugarloaf | Sugarloaf | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 walls | nmod |
| 13 | shoot | shoot | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 caverned | ccomp |
| 14 | up | up | ADP | _ | 13 shoot | compound:prt |
| 15 | above | above | ADP | _ | 16 us | case |
| 16 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 shoot | obl |
| 17 | just | just | ADV | _ | 18 here | advmod |
| 18 | here | here | ADV | PronType=Dem | 13 shoot | advmod |
| 19 | like | like | ADP | _ | 21 parapet | case |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 parapet | det |
| 21 | parapet | parapet | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 here | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 layers | punct |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 26 layers | case |
| 24 | regularly | regularly | ADV | _ | 25 marked | advmod |
| 25 | marked | mark | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 26 layers | amod |
| 26 | layers | layer | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 shoot | obl |
| 27 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 28 tufts | punct |
| 28 | tufts | tuft | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 beard | nsubj |
| 29 | of | of | ADP | _ | 30 flax | case |
| 30 | flax | flax | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 tufts | nmod |
| 31 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 tussock | cc |
| 32 | tussock | tussock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 flax | conj |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 veronica | cc |
| 34 | wiry | wiry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 veronica | amod |
| 35 | veronica | veronica | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 flax | conj |
| 36 | beard | beard | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 notched | ccomp |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 face | det |
| 38 | face | face | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 beard | obj |
| 39 | of | of | ADP | _ | 44 cliffs | case |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 cliffs | det |
| 41 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 44 cliffs | amod |
| 42 | fire | fire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 cliffs | compound |
| 43 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 42 fire | punct |
| 44 | cliffs | cliff | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 face | nmod |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 notched | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | builde | participle | the lava not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | notch | past | the lava | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | cavern | past | the lava not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | shoot up | present | walls of the Sugarloaf | marked layers; here | above us | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||
| 5 | mark | participle | regularly property | vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | beard | present | tufts of flax and tussock and wiry veronica | the face of the old fire cliffs | vn pit-10.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent face=Source |
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.
Text: «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, Project Gutenberg book 73766 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/11/17/