Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 26
Then, turning in the other direction, he spoke of the fish-teeming waters of the harbour, where flounders, shark, and other _kai-matai-tai_, “food of the salt sea,” were to be had in abundance.
Who acts: Waitai · What happens: turn, speak, teem, flounder, have · To what, where: other direction, shark, abundance · 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), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 turning | advmod |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Then | punct |
| 3 | turning | turn | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 10 spoke | advcl |
| 4 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 direction | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 direction | det |
| 6 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 direction | amod |
| 7 | direction | direction | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 turning | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 turning | punct |
| 9 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 spoke | nsubj |
| 10 | spoke | speak | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 waters | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 waters | det |
| 13 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 teeming | compound |
| 14 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 13 fish | punct |
| 15 | teeming | teem | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 16 waters | amod |
| 16 | waters | water | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 spoke | obl |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 harbour | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 harbour | det |
| 19 | harbour | harbour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 waters | nmod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 flounders | punct |
| 21 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 22 flounders | advmod |
| 22 | flounders | flounder | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 19 harbour | acl:relcl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 shark | punct |
| 24 | shark | shark | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 flounders | obj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 had | punct |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 47 had | cc |
| 27 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 had | advcl |
| 28 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 31 matai | punct |
| 29 | kai | kai | X | _ | 31 matai | compound |
| 30 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 31 matai | punct |
| 31 | matai | matai | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 other | appos |
| 32 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 33 tai | punct |
| 33 | tai | tai | X | Foreign=Yes | 31 matai | appos |
| 34 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 33 tai | punct |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 food | punct |
| 36 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 37 food | punct |
| 37 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 matai | conj |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 41 sea | case |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 sea | det |
| 40 | salt | salt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 sea | compound |
| 41 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 food | nmod |
| 42 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 ” | punct |
| 43 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 31 matai | punct |
| 44 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 47 had | aux |
| 45 | to | to | PART | _ | 47 had | mark |
| 46 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 47 had | aux:pass |
| 47 | had | have | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 spoke | conj |
| 48 | in | in | ADP | _ | 49 abundance | case |
| 49 | abundance | abundance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 had | obl |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 spoke | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | turn | gerund | Waitai not said here | the other direction | then | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme in direction=Trajectory | |||
| 2 | speak speech: other | past | Waitai | of the teeming waters of the harbour | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | teem | gerund | fish compound | vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | flounder | present | shark | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | have | past · passive | Waitai not said here | abundance | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP» |
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/pg73766/11/26/