Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Little People of the Mist., sentence 63
The offspring of such unions were always known by their extremely fair skins, unnaturally pale, and their light flaxen hair; they were _korako_ or albinos.
Who acts: fair skins, light, skins · What happens: know, hair, be, light · To what, where: offspring, korako
This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, The Little People of the Mist.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fair skins, light, skins), 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 offspring | det |
| 2 | offspring | offspring | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 known | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 unions | case |
| 4 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 unions | amod |
| 5 | unions | union | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 offspring | nmod |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 known | aux:pass |
| 7 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 8 known | advmod |
| 8 | known | know | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 9 | by | by | ADP | _ | 13 skins | case |
| 10 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 skins | nmod:poss |
| 11 | extremely | extremely | ADV | _ | 12 fair | advmod |
| 12 | fair | fair | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 skins | amod |
| 13 | skins | skin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 known | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 pale | punct |
| 15 | unnaturally | unnaturally | ADV | _ | 16 pale | advmod |
| 16 | pale | pale | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 skins | conj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 hair | punct |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 hair | cc |
| 19 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 light | nmod:poss |
| 20 | light | light | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 hair | nsubj |
| 21 | flaxen | flaxen | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 hair | amod |
| 22 | hair | hair | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 skins | conj |
| 23 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 27 korako | punct |
| 24 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 korako | nsubj |
| 25 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 korako | cop |
| 26 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 27 korako | punct |
| 27 | korako | korako | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 known | parataxis |
| 28 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 27 korako | punct |
| 29 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 30 albinos | cc |
| 30 | albinos | albino | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 korako | conj |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 known | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | know | past · passive | unions's fair skins and flaxen hair | the offspring of such unions | always property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus | |||
| 2 | hair | skins's light | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | is a | past | skins = skin | korako or albinos | albinos conj | tree rules | |||
| 4 | light | skins = skin | nom light «phenomenon transitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg73766/14/63/