Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea., sentence 101
The water-front, in spite of its smart new jetty for the launches, is lonelier than in the old days; for there was a time, long after the war-canoe era, when three long whaleboats were hauled up on the sand where the boulders are piled aside yonder and often these could be seen pulling down to Lyttelton laden with potatoes, corn and fruit.
Who acts: water front, time, these · What happens: be, haul up, pile, see, pull down, laden · To what, where: three long whaleboats, boulders, sand, these, Lyttelton, smart new jetty
This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water front, time, these), 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 | 4 front | det |
| 2 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 front | compound |
| 3 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 2 water | punct |
| 4 | front | front | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 lonelier | nsubj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 spite | punct |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 spite | case |
| 7 | spite | spite | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 front | conj |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 jetty | case |
| 9 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 jetty | nmod:poss |
| 10 | smart | smart | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 jetty | amod |
| 11 | new | new | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 jetty | amod |
| 12 | jetty | jetty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 spite | nmod |
| 13 | for | for | ADP | _ | 15 launches | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 launches | det |
| 15 | launches | launch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 jetty | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 front | punct |
| 17 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 18 lonelier | cop |
| 18 | lonelier | lonely | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 19 | than | than | ADP | _ | 23 days | case |
| 20 | in | in | ADP | _ | 23 days | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 days | det |
| 22 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 days | amod |
| 23 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 lonelier | obl |
| 24 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 27 was | punct |
| 25 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 27 was | mark |
| 26 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 27 was | expl |
| 27 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 lonelier | conj |
| 28 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 29 time | det |
| 29 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 was | nsubj |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 era | punct |
| 31 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 37 era | advmod |
| 32 | after | after | ADP | _ | 37 era | case |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 era | det |
| 34 | war | war | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 canoe | compound |
| 35 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 34 war | punct |
| 36 | canoe | canoe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 era | compound |
| 37 | era | era | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 was | obl |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 hauled | punct |
| 39 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 44 hauled | mark |
| 40 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 42 whaleboats | nummod |
| 41 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 whaleboats | amod |
| 42 | whaleboats | whaleboat | NOUN | Number=Plur | 44 hauled | nsubj:pass |
| 43 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 44 hauled | aux:pass |
| 44 | hauled | haul | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 37 era | conj |
| 45 | up | up | ADP | _ | 44 hauled | compound:prt |
| 46 | on | on | ADP | _ | 48 sand | case |
| 47 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 48 sand | det |
| 48 | sand | sand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 53 piled | obl |
| 49 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 53 piled | advmod |
| 50 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 51 boulders | det |
| 51 | boulders | boulder | NOUN | Number=Plur | 53 piled | nsubj:pass |
| 52 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 53 piled | aux:pass |
| 53 | piled | pile | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 44 hauled | parataxis |
| 54 | aside | aside | ADV | _ | 53 piled | advmod |
| 55 | yonder | yonder | ADV | _ | 53 piled | advmod |
| 56 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 61 seen | cc |
| 57 | often | often | ADV | _ | 61 seen | advmod |
| 58 | these | this | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 61 seen | nsubj:pass |
| 59 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 61 seen | aux |
| 60 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 61 seen | aux:pass |
| 61 | seen | see | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 53 piled | conj |
| 62 | pulling | pull | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 61 seen | xcomp |
| 63 | down | down | ADV | _ | 62 pulling | advmod |
| 64 | to | to | ADP | _ | 65 Lyttelton | case |
| 65 | Lyttelton | Lyttelton | PROPN | Number=Sing | 66 laden | obl |
| 66 | laden | laden | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 62 pulling | advcl |
| 67 | with | with | ADP | _ | 68 potatoes | case |
| 68 | potatoes | potato | NOUN | Number=Plur | 66 laden | obl |
| 69 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 70 corn | punct |
| 70 | corn | corn | NOUN | Number=Sing | 68 potatoes | conj |
| 71 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 72 fruit | cc |
| 72 | fruit | fruit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 70 corn | conj |
| 73 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 18 lonelier | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | the water front and spite of spite's smart new jetty for the launches | day | lonely property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | be | past | a time | there | after the canoe era | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||
| 3 | haul up | past · passive | three long whaleboats | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 4 | pile | present · passive | the boulders | the sand | aside, yonder property | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on sand=Destination | |||
| 5 | see | could · passive | these | often property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | pull down | gerund | these not said here | down property | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 7 | laden | present | these not said here | Lyttelton | with potatoes and corn and fruit | tree rules | |||
| 8 | spite | spite's smart new jetty for the launches | nom spite «feeling 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/pg73766/12/101/