---
title: Down in a nearer dwelling, a girl is rehearsing a _poi_-dance song,… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Down in a nearer dwelling, a girl is rehearsing a _poi_-dance song, and the lilt is familiar, the half-sad chant that begins, Who acts: girl, lilt, sad chant. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea., with its dependenc
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/109/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Ca…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/) / [Rapaki: a Village By the Sea.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/) / 109

# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea., sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Down in a nearer dwelling, a girl is rehearsing a \_poi\_-dance song, and the lilt is familiar, the half-sad chant that begins,

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** girl, lilt, sad chant · **What happens:** rehearse, be, begin · **To what, where:** \_ poi

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, lilt, sad chant), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg73766:12:109
# text = Down in a nearer dwelling, a girl is rehearsing a _poi_-dance song, and the lilt is familiar, the half-sad chant that begins,
1	Down	down	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	rehearsing	rehearse	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	_	_	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	poi	poi	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	lilt	lilt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	familiar	familiar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
26	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	chant	chant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
31	begins	begin	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rehearse** | present · progressive | a girl | a \_ poi |  |  |  | dance song *obj*; down *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | the lilt |  |  |  |  | familiar *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **begin** | present | the sad chant |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/108/)
- next →: [sentence 110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/110/)
- ↑ back to [Rapaki: a Village By the Sea.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/)