Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Little People of the Mist., sentence 7
Nearer, in the middle of the picture, were the black volcanic cliffs, and the green slopes and pine-groves of the Lepers’ Isle, the island which the Maoris of old called Otamahua, mapped by the _pakeha_ as Quail Island; it was one tragic spot in the picture, a place of living death.
Who acts: Cliff · What happens: be, call, map · To what, where: Nearer black volcanic cliffs, Otamahua, one tragic spot, picture · 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 (Cliff), 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 | Nearer | near | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 14 cliffs | amod |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 middle | punct |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 middle | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 middle | det |
| 5 | middle | middle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Nearer | obl |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 picture | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 picture | det |
| 8 | picture | picture | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 middle | nmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Nearer | punct |
| 10 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 cliffs | cop |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 cliffs | det |
| 12 | black | black | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 cliffs | amod |
| 13 | volcanic | volcanic | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 cliffs | amod |
| 14 | cliffs | cliff | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 slopes | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 slopes | cc |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 slopes | det |
| 18 | green | green | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 slopes | amod |
| 19 | slopes | slope | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 cliffs | conj |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 groves | cc |
| 21 | pine | pine | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 groves | compound |
| 22 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 21 pine | punct |
| 23 | groves | grove | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 slopes | conj |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 28 Isle | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 Lepers | det |
| 26 | Lepers | Leper | PROPN | Number=Plur | 28 Isle | nmod:poss |
| 27 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 26 Lepers | case |
| 28 | Isle | Isle | PROPN | Number=Sing | 23 groves | nmod |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 island | punct |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 island | det |
| 31 | island | island | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 Isle | appos |
| 32 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 34 Maoris | nsubj |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 Maoris | det |
| 34 | Maoris | Maoris | PROPN | Number=Sing | 31 island | nmod |
| 35 | of | of | ADP | _ | 36 old | case |
| 36 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 34 Maoris | amod |
| 37 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 36 old | acl |
| 38 | Otamahua | Otamahua | PROPN | Number=Sing | 37 called | xcomp |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 mapped | punct |
| 40 | mapped | map | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 38 Otamahua | acl |
| 41 | by | by | ADP | _ | 44 pakeha | case |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 pakeha | det |
| 43 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 44 pakeha | punct |
| 44 | pakeha | pakeha | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 mapped | obl |
| 45 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 40 mapped | punct |
| 46 | as | as | ADP | _ | 48 Island | case |
| 47 | Quail | Quail | PROPN | Number=Sing | 48 Island | compound |
| 48 | Island | Island | PROPN | Number=Sing | 40 mapped | obl |
| 49 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 54 spot | punct |
| 50 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 54 spot | nsubj |
| 51 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 54 spot | cop |
| 52 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 54 spot | nummod |
| 53 | tragic | tragic | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 54 spot | amod |
| 54 | spot | spot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 old | obl |
| 55 | in | in | ADP | _ | 57 picture | case |
| 56 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 57 picture | det |
| 57 | picture | picture | NOUN | Number=Sing | 54 spot | nmod |
| 58 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 60 place | punct |
| 59 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 60 place | det |
| 60 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 57 picture | conj |
| 61 | of | of | ADP | _ | 63 death | case |
| 62 | living | living | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 63 death | amod |
| 63 | death | death | NOUN | Number=Sing | 60 place | nmod |
| 64 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 14 cliffs | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | the Nearer black volcanic cliffs and the green slopes and pine groves of the Lepers's Isle | the green slopes and pine groves of the Lepers's Isle conj | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | call | participle | Otamahua xcomp | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | map | participle | Otamahua not said here | by the pakeha; as Quail Island | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | is a | past | Cliff | one tragic spot | the picture and a place of living death | tree rules |
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/pg73766/14/7/