Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 34
A little lower and we are in the bush, taking care as we enter it to give a wide berth to the insinuating Maori nettle, the _ongaonga_, with its unhealthy-looking light-coloured leaves covered with a thick growth of fine spines or hairs.
Who acts: we, fine spines · What happens: be, take, enter, give, insinuate, look · To what, where: bush, care, wide berth, insinuating Maori nettle, coloured leaves
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 (we, fine spines), 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 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 little | det |
| 2 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 lower | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | lower | low | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 4 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 bush | cc |
| 5 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 9 bush | nsubj |
| 6 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 bush | cop |
| 7 | in | in | ADP | _ | 9 bush | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 bush | det |
| 9 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 lower | conj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 taking | punct |
| 11 | taking | take | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 9 bush | conj |
| 12 | care | care | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 taking | obj |
| 13 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 15 enter | mark |
| 14 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 15 enter | nsubj |
| 15 | enter | enter | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 taking | advcl |
| 16 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 enter | obj |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 give | mark |
| 18 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 enter | xcomp |
| 19 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 berth | det |
| 20 | wide | wide | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 berth | amod |
| 21 | berth | berth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 give | obj |
| 22 | to | to | ADP | _ | 26 nettle | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 nettle | det |
| 24 | insinuating | insinuate | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 26 nettle | amod |
| 25 | Maori | maori | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 nettle | compound |
| 26 | nettle | nettle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 give | obl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 ongaonga | punct |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 ongaonga | det |
| 29 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 30 ongaonga | punct |
| 30 | ongaonga | ongaonga | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 nettle | appos |
| 31 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 30 ongaonga | punct |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 looking | punct |
| 33 | with | with | SCONJ | _ | 37 looking | mark |
| 34 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 37 looking | nmod:poss |
| 35 | unhealthy | unhealthy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 looking | compound |
| 36 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 35 unhealthy | punct |
| 37 | looking | look | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 11 taking | conj |
| 38 | light | light | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 coloured | compound |
| 39 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 38 light | punct |
| 40 | coloured | coloured | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 leaves | amod |
| 41 | leaves | leaf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 looking | obj |
| 42 | covered | cover | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 41 leaves | acl |
| 43 | with | with | ADP | _ | 46 growth | case |
| 44 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 46 growth | det |
| 45 | thick | thick | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 growth | amod |
| 46 | growth | growth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 covered | obl |
| 47 | of | of | ADP | _ | 49 spines | case |
| 48 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 49 spines | amod |
| 49 | spines | spine | NOUN | Number=Plur | 46 growth | nmod |
| 50 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 51 hairs | cc |
| 51 | hairs | hair | NOUN | Number=Plur | 49 spines | conj |
| 52 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 lower | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | we | the bush | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | take | gerund | we not said here | care | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent care=Theme | ||||
| 3 | enter | present | we | care | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | give | to-infinitive | we not said here | a wide berth | the insinuating Maori nettle | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent berth=Theme to nettle=Recipient | |||
| 5 | insinuate speech: other | gerund | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 6 | look | gerund | we not said here | coloured leaves | ongaonga nmod:poss | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme leaf=Attribute | |||
| 7 | cover | participle | coloured leaves not said here | with a thick growth of fine spines or hairs | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with growth=Theme | ||||
| 9 | grow | fine spines or hairs | nom growth «process 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/pg73766/11/34/