Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Little People of the Mist., sentence 68
The _Maeroero_ are described as having very long and sharp finger-nails, so long that they were great claws, and it was with these long talons that they speared the flatfish and caught the birds in the forests.
Who acts: nails, settlement · What happens: describe, have, be, spear, catch · To what, where: Maeroero, great claws, long talons, birds, forests
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 (nails, 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 Maeroero | det |
| 2 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 3 Maeroero | punct |
| 3 | Maeroero | Maeroero | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 described | nsubj:pass |
| 4 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 3 Maeroero | punct |
| 5 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 described | aux:pass |
| 6 | described | describe | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 7 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 8 having | mark |
| 8 | having | have | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 6 described | advcl |
| 9 | very | very | ADV | _ | 10 long | advmod |
| 10 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 having | xcomp |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 nails | cc |
| 12 | sharp | sharp | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 nails | amod |
| 13 | finger | finger | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 nails | compound |
| 14 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 13 finger | punct |
| 15 | nails | nail | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 long | conj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 long | punct |
| 17 | so | so | ADV | _ | 18 long | advmod |
| 18 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 6 described | advmod |
| 19 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 23 claws | mark |
| 20 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 claws | nsubj |
| 21 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 claws | cop |
| 22 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 claws | amod |
| 23 | claws | claw | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 long | advcl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 talons | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 talons | cc |
| 26 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 talons | nsubj |
| 27 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 talons | cop |
| 28 | with | with | ADP | _ | 31 talons | case |
| 29 | these | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 31 talons | det |
| 30 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 talons | amod |
| 31 | talons | talon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 described | obl |
| 32 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 34 speared | obj |
| 33 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 speared | nsubj |
| 34 | speared | spear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 talons | acl:relcl |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 flatfish | det |
| 36 | flatfish | flatfish | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 speared | obj |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 caught | cc |
| 38 | caught | catch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 speared | conj |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 birds | det |
| 40 | birds | bird | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 caught | obj |
| 41 | in | in | ADP | _ | 43 forests | case |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 forests | det |
| 43 | forests | forest | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 caught | obl |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 described | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | describe | present · passive | the Maeroero | long property | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 2 | have | gerund | long property | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | is a | past | nails = nail | great claws | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | is | past | settlement | with this long talons | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | spear | past | nails = nail | this long talons | the flatfish obj | tree rules | |||
| 6 | catch | past | nails = nail not said here | the birds | the forests | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
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/pg73766/14/68/