Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 68
In the next main gully to the northward, the Taungahara bush, on the Native reserve, there is at least one fine _totara_, and some big fellows were cut down there not so very long ago by the Rapaki people for fencing posts.
Who acts: one fine totara, Rapaki people · What happens: be, cut down · To what, where: big fellows, next main gully
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 (one fine totara, Rapaki people), 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 | In | in | ADP | _ | 5 gully | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 gully | det |
| 3 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 gully | amod |
| 4 | main | main | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 gully | amod |
| 5 | gully | gully | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | ADP | _ | 8 northward | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 northward | det |
| 8 | northward | northward | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 gully | nmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 bush | punct |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 bush | det |
| 11 | Taungahara | Taungahara | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 bush | compound |
| 12 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 gully | conj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 reserve | punct |
| 14 | on | on | ADP | _ | 17 reserve | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 reserve | det |
| 16 | Native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 reserve | amod |
| 17 | reserve | reserve | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 gully | conj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 is | punct |
| 19 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 20 is | expl |
| 20 | is | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 17 reserve | parataxis |
| 21 | at | at | ADP | _ | 22 least | case |
| 22 | least | least | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 23 one | nmod |
| 23 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 26 totara | nummod |
| 24 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 totara | amod |
| 25 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 24 fine | punct |
| 26 | totara | totara | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 is | nsubj |
| 27 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 20 is | punct |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 cut | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 cut | cc |
| 30 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 32 fellows | det |
| 31 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 fellows | amod |
| 32 | fellows | fellow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 cut | nsubj:pass |
| 33 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 cut | aux:pass |
| 34 | cut | cut | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 gully | acl |
| 35 | down | down | ADP | _ | 34 cut | compound:prt |
| 36 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 34 cut | advmod |
| 37 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 38 so | advmod |
| 38 | so | so | ADV | _ | 40 long | advmod |
| 39 | very | very | ADV | _ | 40 long | advmod |
| 40 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 41 ago | advmod |
| 41 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 34 cut | advmod |
| 42 | by | by | ADP | _ | 45 people | case |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 people | det |
| 44 | Rapaki | Rapaki | PROPN | Number=Sing | 45 people | compound |
| 45 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 cut | obl:agent |
| 46 | for | for | ADP | _ | 48 posts | case |
| 47 | fencing | fencing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 48 posts | compound |
| 48 | posts | post | NOUN | Number=Plur | 45 people | nmod |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 gully | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | present | one fine totara | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | cut down | past · passive | the Rapaki people for fencing posts | some big fellows | there | ago property | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Product |
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/pg73766/11/68/