Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 72

The butte here is topped by a rock formation so regular and resembling a ruined fortification that the Boy Scout opines it would be a splendid place for a fight, and certainly the old shattered tor of the fire-kings, with its copses of wire-branched _koromiko_ and its thick flax-clumps, suggests itself as a first-rate natural redoubt, where a few riflemen might hold out among their rocks and shrubby cover against a score of times their number.

Who acts: rock formation, Boy Scout, Scout, copses, few riflemen · What happens: top, resemble, ruin, opine, be, branch · To what, where: butte, ruined fortification, splendid place, koromiko, rocks, times

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 (rock formation, Boy Scout, Scout, copses), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 butte	det
2	butte	butte	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 topped	nsubj:pass
3	here	here	ADV	PronType=Dem	2 butte	advmod
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 topped	aux:pass
5	topped	top	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	9 formation	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 formation	det
8	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 formation	compound
9	formation	formation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 topped	obl
10	so	so	ADV	_	11 regular	advmod
11	regular	regular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 formation	amod
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 resembling	cc
13	resembling	resemble	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 regular	conj
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 fortification	det
15	ruined	ruin	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 fortification	amod
16	fortification	fortification	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 resembling	obj
17	that	that	SCONJ	_	21 opines	mark
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 Scout	det
19	Boy	Boy	PROPN	Number=Sing	20 Scout	compound
20	Scout	Scout	PROPN	Number=Sing	21 opines	nsubj
21	opines	opine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 fortification	acl:relcl
22	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 place	nsubj
23	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	27 place	aux
24	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	27 place	cop
25	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	27 place	det
26	splendid	splendid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	27 place	amod
27	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 opines	ccomp
28	for	for	ADP	_	30 fight	case
29	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	30 fight	det
30	fight	fight	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 place	nmod
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 tor	punct
32	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 tor	cc
33	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	37 tor	advmod
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 tor	det
35	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 tor	amod
36	shattered	shattered	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 tor	amod
37	tor	tor	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 topped	obl
38	of	of	ADP	_	42 kings	case
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 kings	det
40	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 kings	compound
41	-	-	PUNCT	_	40 fire	punct
42	kings	king	NOUN	Number=Plur	37 tor	nmod
43	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 copses	punct
44	with	with	ADP	_	46 copses	case
45	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	46 copses	nmod:poss
46	copses	copse	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 topped	obl
47	of	of	ADP	_	48 wire	case
48	wire	wire	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 copses	nmod
49	-	-	PUNCT	_	50 branched	punct
50	branched	branch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	46 copses	acl
51	_	_	PUNCT	_	52 koromiko	punct
52	koromiko	koromiko	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 branched	obj
53	_	_	PUNCT	_	50 branched	punct
54	and	and	CCONJ	_	59 clumps	cc
55	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	59 clumps	nmod:poss
56	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	59 clumps	amod
57	flax	flax	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 clumps	compound
58	-	-	PUNCT	_	57 flax	punct
59	clumps	clump	NOUN	Number=Plur	46 copses	conj
60	,	,	PUNCT	_	61 suggests	punct
61	suggests	suggest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 topped	parataxis
62	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	61 suggests	obj
63	as	as	ADP	_	69 redoubt	case
64	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	69 redoubt	det
65	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	67 rate	amod
66	-	-	PUNCT	_	65 first	punct
67	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	69 redoubt	compound
68	natural	natural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	69 redoubt	amod
69	redoubt	redoubt	NOUN	Number=Sing	61 suggests	obl
70	,	,	PUNCT	_	76 hold	punct
71	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	76 hold	advmod
72	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	74 riflemen	det
73	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	74 riflemen	amod
74	riflemen	rifleman	NOUN	Number=Plur	76 hold	nsubj
75	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	76 hold	aux
76	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	69 redoubt	conj
77	out	out	ADP	_	76 hold	compound:prt
78	among	among	ADP	_	80 rocks	case
79	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	80 rocks	nmod:poss
80	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	76 hold	obl
81	and	and	CCONJ	_	83 cover	cc
82	shrubby	shrubby	ADJ	Degree=Pos	83 cover	amod
83	cover	cover	NOUN	Number=Sing	80 rocks	conj
84	against	against	ADP	_	86 score	case
85	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	86 score	det
86	score	score	NOUN	Number=Sing	83 cover	nmod
87	of	of	ADP	_	88 times	case
88	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	86 score	nmod
89	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	90 number	nmod:poss
90	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	88 times	appos
91	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 topped	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	top	present · passive	a rock formation	the butte		with Scout's copses of wire and koromiko's thick flax clumps; the old shattered tor of the fire kings obl	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent subject=Destination with copse=Theme
2	resemble	gerund	a rock formation not said here	a ruined fortification			tree rules
3	ruin	participle					vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	opine	present	the Boy Scout	a ruined fortification not said here			tree rules
5	is a	would	Scout	a splendid place		for a fight	tree rules
6	branch	participle	Scout's copses of wire and koromiko's thick flax clumps not said here	koromiko			tree rules
7	suggest speech: suggest	present		koromiko		as a rate natural redoubt	vn say-37.7-1-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent itself=Topic
8	hold out	might	a few riflemen		riflemen's rocks and shrubby cover against a score of times		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among rock=Location
9	score			times			nom score «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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/pg73766/11/72/

🌲 Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 72

The tree

Pragmatics

Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 72