---
title: The instructor is improving the half-holiday with a practical talk o… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: The instructor is improving the half-holiday with a practical talk on the native flora, and twenty notebooks are out and pencils busy. Who acts: instructor, twenty notebooks. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, with
---

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# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”, sentence 80

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The instructor is improving the half-holiday with a practical talk on the native flora, and twenty notebooks are out and pencils busy.

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**Who acts:** instructor, twenty notebooks · **What happens:** improve, be · **To what, where:** half holiday, pencils

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This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, “the Crest of the Rainbow.”. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (instructor, twenty notebooks), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg73766:11:80
# text = The instructor is improving the half-holiday with a practical talk on the native flora, and twenty notebooks are out and pencils busy.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	instructor	instructor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	improving	improve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	holiday	holiday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	practical	practical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	flora	flora	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	notebooks	notebook	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	out	out	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	pencils	pencil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl:unmarked	_	_
25	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **improve** | present · progressive | the instructor | the half holiday |  |  |  | with a practical talk on the native flora | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent holiday=Patient with talk=Instrument |
| 2 | **is** | present | twenty notebooks |  |  |  |  | out *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | twenty notebooks *not said here* | pencils |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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.

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**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.

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