Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 40
If you are on a steep, slippery slope and reach out for a hand-grip, as likely as not instead of a friendly flax or tussock bunch the _ongaonga_ will be there waiting for you with his devilish little stinging hairs.
Who acts: you · What happens: be, reach out, wait, sting · To what, where: steep slippery slope
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 (you), 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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 9 slope | mark |
| 2 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 9 slope | nsubj |
| 3 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 slope | cop |
| 4 | on | on | ADP | _ | 9 slope | case |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 slope | det |
| 6 | steep | steep | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 slope | amod |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 steep | punct |
| 8 | slippery | slippery | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 slope | amod |
| 9 | slope | slope | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 reach | cc |
| 11 | reach | reach | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 slope | conj |
| 12 | out | out | ADP | _ | 11 reach | compound:prt |
| 13 | for | for | ADP | _ | 17 grip | case |
| 14 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 17 grip | det |
| 15 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 grip | compound |
| 16 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 15 hand | punct |
| 17 | grip | grip | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 reach | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 likely | punct |
| 19 | as | as | ADV | _ | 20 likely | advmod |
| 20 | likely | likely | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 grip | amod |
| 21 | as | as | ADP | _ | 22 not | case |
| 22 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 20 likely | obl |
| 23 | instead | instead | ADV | ExtPos=ADP | 27 flax | case |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 instead | fixed |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 27 flax | det |
| 26 | friendly | friendly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 flax | amod |
| 27 | flax | flax | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 grip | nmod |
| 28 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 30 bunch | cc |
| 29 | tussock | tussock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 bunch | compound |
| 30 | bunch | bunch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 flax | conj |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 ongaonga | det |
| 32 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 33 ongaonga | punct |
| 33 | ongaonga | ongaonga | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 flax | conj |
| 34 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 37 there | punct |
| 35 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 37 there | aux |
| 36 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 37 there | cop |
| 37 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 11 reach | advmod |
| 38 | waiting | wait | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 37 there | advcl |
| 39 | for | for | ADP | _ | 40 you | case |
| 40 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 38 waiting | obl |
| 41 | with | with | ADP | _ | 46 hairs | case |
| 42 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 46 hairs | nmod:poss |
| 43 | devilish | devilish | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 hairs | amod |
| 44 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 hairs | amod |
| 45 | stinging | sting | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 46 hairs | amod |
| 46 | hairs | hair | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 waiting | obl |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 slope | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | you | a steep slippery slope | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | reach out | infinitive | you not said here | for a hand grip instead a friendly flax or tussock bunch and the ongaonga | vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | is | future | there property | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | wait | gerund | for you; with detour's devilish little stinging hairs | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | sting | gerund | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
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/pg73766/11/40/