Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 3

There, on the white road that curves along the hillsides well above the waters of the Whanga-Raupo, it is easy to understand something of the fiery history of these hills, when the hollow that now is Lyttelton Harbour was one terrific nest of volcanoes and when the tremendous forces of confined steam and gases hurled whole mountain-tops skyward and helped to give savage shape to the walls of rhyolite rock that stand to-day little altered by the passage of the untold centuries of years.

Who acts: white road, hollow, tremendous forces, rhyolite rock, untold centuries · What happens: curve, be, understand, confine, hurl, help · To what, where: waters, something, Lyttelton, one terrific nest, tops skyward, savage shape

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 (white road, hollow, tremendous forces, rhyolite rock), 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	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 road	punct
3	on	on	ADP	_	6 road	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 road	det
5	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 road	amod
6	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 There	appos
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 curves	nsubj
8	curves	curve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 road	acl:relcl
9	along	along	ADP	_	11 hillsides	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 hillsides	det
11	hillsides	hillside	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 curves	obl
12	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 curves	advmod
13	above	above	ADP	_	15 waters	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 waters	det
15	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 curves	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	20 Raupo	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 Raupo	det
18	Whanga	Whanga	PROPN	Number=Sing	20 Raupo	compound
19	-	-	PUNCT	_	18 Whanga	punct
20	Raupo	Raupo	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 waters	nmod
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 easy	punct
22	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 easy	expl
23	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	24 easy	cop
24	easy	easy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 curves	parataxis
25	to	to	PART	_	26 understand	mark
26	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	24 easy	csubj
27	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	26 understand	obj
28	of	of	ADP	_	31 history	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 history	det
30	fiery	fiery	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 history	amod
31	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 something	nmod
32	of	of	ADP	_	34 hills	case
33	these	this	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	34 hills	det
34	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	31 history	nmod
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 when	punct
36	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	27 something	conj
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 hollow	det
38	hollow	hollow	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 when	nsubj
39	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	47 nest	nsubj
40	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	42 Lyttelton	advmod
41	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	42 Lyttelton	cop
42	Lyttelton	Lyttelton	PROPN	Number=Sing	47 nest	nsubj
43	Harbour	Harbour	PROPN	Number=Sing	42 Lyttelton	flat
44	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	47 nest	cop
45	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	47 nest	nummod
46	terrific	terrific	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 nest	amod
47	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 hollow	acl:relcl
48	of	of	ADP	_	49 volcanoes	case
49	volcanoes	volcano	NOUN	Number=Plur	47 nest	nmod
50	and	and	CCONJ	_	60 hurled	cc
51	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	60 hurled	advmod
52	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	54 forces	det
53	tremendous	tremendous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	54 forces	amod
54	forces	force	NOUN	Number=Plur	60 hurled	nsubj
55	of	of	ADP	_	57 steam	case
56	confined	confine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	57 steam	amod
57	steam	steam	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 forces	nmod
58	and	and	CCONJ	_	59 gases	cc
59	gases	gas	NOUN	Number=Plur	57 steam	conj
60	hurled	hurl	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	47 nest	conj
61	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	64 tops	amod
62	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	64 tops	compound
63	-	-	PUNCT	_	62 mountain	punct
64	tops	top	NOUN	Number=Plur	65 skyward	compound
65	skyward	skyward	NOUN	Number=Sing	60 hurled	obj
66	and	and	CCONJ	_	67 helped	cc
67	helped	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	60 hurled	conj
68	to	to	PART	_	69 give	mark
69	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	67 helped	xcomp
70	savage	savage	ADJ	Degree=Pos	71 shape	amod
71	shape	shape	NOUN	Number=Sing	69 give	obj
72	to	to	ADP	_	74 walls	case
73	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	74 walls	det
74	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	69 give	obl
75	of	of	ADP	_	77 rock	case
76	rhyolite	rhyolite	NOUN	Number=Sing	77 rock	compound
77	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	74 walls	nmod
78	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	79 stand	nsubj
79	stand	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	77 rock	acl:relcl
80	to	to	ADP	_	82 day	case
81	-	-	PUNCT	_	80 to	punct
82	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	79 stand	obl
83	little	little	ADV	Degree=Pos	84 altered	advmod
84	altered	alter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	82 day	acl
85	by	by	ADP	_	87 passage	case
86	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	87 passage	det
87	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	84 altered	obl
88	of	of	ADP	_	91 centuries	case
89	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	91 centuries	det
90	untold	untold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	91 centuries	amod
91	centuries	century	NOUN	Number=Plur	87 passage	nmod
92	of	of	ADP	_	93 years	case
93	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	91 centuries	nmod
94	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 There	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	curve	present	the white road			the waters of the Whanga Raupo		along the hillsides; well property	vn knead-26.5 «NP.material V PP.product»: agent=Material
2	is	present						easy property	tree rules
3	understand	to-infinitive		something of the fiery history of this hills					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer something=Stimulus
4	is a	present		Lyttelton			now		tree rules
5	is a	past	the hollow	one terrific nest				of volcanoes	tree rules
6	confine	participle							vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
7	hurl	past	the tremendous forces of confined steam and gases	tops skyward					vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skyward=Theme
8	help	past	the tremendous forces of confined steam and gases not said here						vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
9	give	to-infinitive	the tremendous forces of confined steam and gases not said here	savage shape	the walls of rhyolite rock				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent shape=Theme to wall=Recipient
10	stand	present	rhyolite rock				day		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
11	alter	participle		day not said here				by the passage of the untold centuries of years; little property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
13	pass		the untold centuries of years						nom passage «act intransitive»: of=agent

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/pg73766/11/3/

🌲 Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 3

The tree

Pragmatics

Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 3