---
title: Once upon a time the indigenous timbers thickly covered all these no… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time the indigenous timbers thickly covered all these now-grassy slopes slanting quickly from the rhyolite hilltop crags to the quiet waters of the Whaka-Raupo. Who acts: indigenous timbers, grassy slopes. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by Jam
---

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# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea., sentence 63

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Once upon a time the indigenous timbers thickly covered all these now-grassy slopes slanting quickly from the rhyolite hilltop crags to the quiet waters of the Whaka-Raupo.

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**Who acts:** indigenous timbers, grassy slopes · **What happens:** cover, slant · **To what, where:** grassy slopes, hilltop crags

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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 (indigenous timbers, grassy slopes), 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:pg73766:12:63
# text = Once upon a time the indigenous timbers thickly covered all these now-grassy slopes slanting quickly from the rhyolite hilltop crags to the quiet waters of the Whaka-Raupo.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	indigenous	indigenous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	timbers	timber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	thickly	thickly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
9	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
11	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
12	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	grassy	grassy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	slopes	slope	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
16	slanting	slant	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	rhyolite	rhyolite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	hilltop	hilltop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	crags	crag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	Whaka	Whaka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	Raupo	Raupo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cover** | past | the indigenous timbers | all grassy slopes |  |  |  | once *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme slope=Destination |
| 2 | **slant** | gerund | all grassy slopes *not said here* |  |  | the hilltop crags to the quiet waters of the Whaka Raupo |  | quickly *property* | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from crag=Location |

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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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