Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Little People of the Mist., sentence 65
Sometimes on dark nights the Maori villagers would see the light of torches moving about in bays across Lyttelton Harbour, then the Bay of Raupo, where they knew there was no settlement of their tribe, and they would say to each other, “See!
Who acts: Maori villagers, torches, Bay, settlement, villagers · What happens: see, move, know, be, say, light · To what, where: light, Lyttelton Harbour, each, torches · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (Maori villagers, torches, Bay, settlement), 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 | Sometimes | sometimes | ADV | PronType=Ind | 9 see | advmod |
| 2 | on | on | ADP | _ | 4 nights | case |
| 3 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 nights | amod |
| 4 | nights | night | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 see | obl |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 villagers | det |
| 6 | Maori | Maori | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 villagers | compound |
| 7 | villagers | villager | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 see | nsubj |
| 8 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 9 see | aux |
| 9 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 light | det |
| 11 | light | light | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 see | obj |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 torches | case |
| 13 | torches | torch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 light | nmod |
| 14 | moving | move | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 13 torches | acl |
| 15 | about | about | ADP | _ | 17 bays | case |
| 16 | in | in | ADP | _ | 17 bays | case |
| 17 | bays | bay | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 moving | obl |
| 18 | across | across | ADP | _ | 20 Harbour | case |
| 19 | Lyttelton | Lyttelton | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 Harbour | compound |
| 20 | Harbour | Harbour | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 moving | obl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 knew | punct |
| 22 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 30 knew | advmod |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 Bay | det |
| 24 | Bay | Bay | PROPN | Number=Sing | 30 knew | nsubj |
| 25 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 Raupo | case |
| 26 | Raupo | Raupo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 24 Bay | nmod |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 knew | punct |
| 28 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 30 knew | advmod |
| 29 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 knew | nsubj |
| 30 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 see | advcl |
| 31 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 32 was | expl |
| 32 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 knew | ccomp |
| 33 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 34 settlement | det |
| 34 | settlement | settlement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 was | nsubj |
| 35 | of | of | ADP | _ | 37 tribe | case |
| 36 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 37 tribe | nmod:poss |
| 37 | tribe | tribe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 settlement | nmod |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 say | punct |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 42 say | cc |
| 40 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 say | nsubj |
| 41 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 42 say | aux |
| 42 | say | say | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 see | parataxis |
| 43 | to | to | ADP | _ | 44 each | case |
| 44 | each | each | DET | ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp | 42 say | obl |
| 45 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 44 each | fixed |
| 46 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 48 See | punct |
| 47 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 48 See | punct |
| 48 | See | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 42 say | conj |
| 49 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 9 see | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | see | would | the Maori villagers | the light of torches | night | sometimes property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer light=Stimulus | ||
| 2 | move | gerund | torches not said here | Lyttelton Harbour | about bays | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme about bay=Trajectory | |||
| 3 | know | past | the Bay of Raupo | then | villagers = villager nsubj | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||
| 4 | be | past | no settlement of villagers's tribe | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | say speech: express | would | villagers = villager | each | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient | ||||
| 6 | see in a quote | infinitive | villagers = villager not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 7 | light | torches | nom light «phenomenon 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/pg73766/14/65/