Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, How the Sacred Fire Came to Witch Hill., sentence 3
From the very crest of the range it shoots in a palisade of frost-shattered rock, towering thirty feet and more in places above the stone-strewn tussocks, and it stretches some distance in irregular cyclopean steps down the steep slope towards Rapaki.
Who acts: lava · What happens: shoot, shatter, tower, stretch · To what, where: crest, thirty feet, places, distance
This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, How the Sacred Fire Came to Witch Hill.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lava), 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 | From | from | ADP | _ | 4 crest | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 crest | det |
| 3 | very | very | ADV | _ | 4 crest | advmod |
| 4 | crest | crest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 shoots | obl |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 range | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 range | det |
| 7 | range | range | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 crest | nmod |
| 8 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 shoots | nsubj |
| 9 | shoots | shoot | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 palisade | case |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 palisade | det |
| 12 | palisade | palisade | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 shoots | obl |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 rock | case |
| 14 | frost | frost | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 shattered | compound |
| 15 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 14 frost | punct |
| 16 | shattered | shatter | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 rock | amod |
| 17 | rock | rock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 palisade | nmod |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 towering | punct |
| 19 | towering | tower | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 9 shoots | advcl |
| 20 | thirty | thirty | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 21 feet | nummod |
| 21 | feet | foot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 towering | obj |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 more | cc |
| 23 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 21 feet | conj |
| 24 | in | in | ADP | _ | 25 places | case |
| 25 | places | place | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 towering | obl |
| 26 | above | above | ADP | _ | 31 tussocks | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 tussocks | det |
| 28 | stone | stone | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 strewn | compound |
| 29 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 28 stone | punct |
| 30 | strewn | strewn | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 tussocks | amod |
| 31 | tussocks | tussock | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 places | nmod |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 stretches | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 stretches | cc |
| 34 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 stretches | nsubj |
| 35 | stretches | stretch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 shoots | conj |
| 36 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 37 distance | det |
| 37 | distance | distance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 stretches | obj |
| 38 | in | in | ADP | _ | 41 steps | case |
| 39 | irregular | irregular | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 steps | amod |
| 40 | cyclopean | cyclopean | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 steps | amod |
| 41 | steps | step | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 stretches | obl |
| 42 | down | down | ADP | _ | 45 slope | case |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 slope | det |
| 44 | steep | steep | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 slope | amod |
| 45 | slope | slope | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 steps | nmod |
| 46 | towards | towards | ADP | _ | 47 Rapaki | case |
| 47 | Rapaki | Rapaki | PROPN | Number=Sing | 45 slope | nmod |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 shoots | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | shoot | present | lava | the crest of the range | in a palisade of shattered rock | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in palisade=Destination | |||
| 2 | shatter | participle | frost compound | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | |||||
| 3 | tower | gerund | lava not said here | thirty feet | places above the strewn tussocks | vn spatial_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location foot=Theme | |||
| 4 | stretch | present | lava | some distance | in irregular cyclopean steps down the steep slope towards Rapaki | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent distance=Patient in step=Topic |
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/pg73766/13/3/