Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 24

He pointed to the reedy lagoons and streams that silvered the flax and tussock desert, where Christchurch City and its suburbs now spread out leisurely and shade off into the rural lands, and said: “Yonder the waters are thick with eels and lampreys, and their margins with ducks and other birds; in the plains beyond there are wekas for the catching.”

Who acts: Waitai, reedy lagoons, waters · What happens: point, silver, spread out, shade off, say, be · To what, where: flax, rural lands, wekas, plains · Speech: someone speaks here

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 (Waitai, reedy lagoons, waters), 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	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pointed	nsubj
2	pointed	point	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	6 lagoons	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 lagoons	det
5	reedy	reedy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 lagoons	amod
6	lagoons	lagoon	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pointed	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 streams	cc
8	streams	stream	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 lagoons	conj
9	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 silvered	nsubj
10	silvered	silver	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 lagoons	acl:relcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 flax	det
12	flax	flax	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 silvered	obj
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 desert	cc
14	tussock	tussock	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 desert	compound
15	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 flax	conj
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 City	punct
17	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	19 City	advmod
18	Christchurch	Christchurch	PROPN	Number=Sing	19 City	compound
19	City	City	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 desert	appos
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 suburbs	cc
21	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	22 suburbs	nmod:poss
22	suburbs	suburb	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 City	conj
23	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	24 spread	advmod
24	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 silvered	advcl
25	out	out	ADP	_	24 spread	compound:prt
26	leisurely	leisurely	ADV	_	24 spread	advmod
27	and	and	CCONJ	_	28 shade	cc
28	shade	shade	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	24 spread	conj
29	off	off	ADP	_	28 shade	compound:prt
30	into	into	ADP	_	33 lands	case
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 lands	det
32	rural	rural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	33 lands	amod
33	lands	land	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 shade	obl
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 said	punct
35	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 said	cc
36	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 pointed	advcl:relcl
37	:	:	PUNCT	_	43 thick	punct
38	“	"	PUNCT	_	43 thick	punct
39	Yonder	yonder	ADV	_	43 thick	advmod
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 waters	det
41	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	43 thick	nsubj
42	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	43 thick	cop
43	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	36 said	ccomp
44	with	with	ADP	_	45 eels	case
45	eels	eel	NOUN	Number=Plur	43 thick	obl
46	and	and	CCONJ	_	47 lampreys	cc
47	lampreys	lamprey	NOUN	Number=Plur	45 eels	conj
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 margins	punct
49	and	and	CCONJ	_	51 margins	cc
50	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	51 margins	nmod:poss
51	margins	margin	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 said	parataxis
52	with	with	ADP	_	53 ducks	case
53	ducks	duck	NOUN	Number=Plur	51 margins	nmod
54	and	and	CCONJ	_	56 birds	cc
55	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	56 birds	amod
56	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 ducks	conj
57	;	;	PUNCT	_	64 wekas	punct
58	in	in	ADP	_	60 plains	case
59	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	60 plains	det
60	plains	plain	NOUN	Number=Plur	64 wekas	obl
61	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	63 are	mark
62	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	63 are	expl
63	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	64 wekas	cop
64	wekas	weka	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pointed	parataxis
65	for	for	ADP	_	67 catching	case
66	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	67 catching	det
67	catching	catching	NOUN	Number=Sing	64 wekas	nmod
68	.	.	PUNCT	_	64 wekas	punct
69	”	"	PUNCT	_	2 pointed	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	point	past	Waitai				to the reedy lagoons and streams	tree rules
2	silver	past	the reedy lagoons and streams	the flax and tussock desert				vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent flax=Patient
3	spread out	present	the reedy lagoons and streams not said here			now	leisurely property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	shade off	present	the reedy lagoons and streams not said here		the rural lands			vn defend-72.3 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
5	say speech: assert	past	Waitai not said here				waters's margins with ducks and other birds parataxis	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
6	is in a quote	present	the waters				with eels and lampreys; thick, yonder property	tree rules
7	is a in a quote	present		wekas	the plains		for the catching	tree rules

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/pg73766/11/24/

🌲 Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 24

The tree

Pragmatics

Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 24