---
title: So by the foot of the greenwood tree was begun the talk of olden day… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: So by the foot of the greenwood tree was begun the talk of olden days that ended, as the sun declined behind the historic crags of Tamatea, on Taare Tikao’s hospitable verandah, overlooking the little village and the soft blue placid waters of the Whaka-Raupo. Who acts: foot, olden days, sun. A sent
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/90/)

<!-- 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/) / 90

# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea., sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So by the foot of the greenwood tree was begun the talk of olden days that ended, as the sun declined behind the historic crags of Tamatea, on Taare Tikao’s hospitable verandah, overlooking the little village and the soft blue placid waters of the Whaka-Raupo.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** foot, olden days, sun · **What happens:** begin, end, decline, overlook, talk · **To what, where:** talk, historic crags, little village

<!-- .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 (foot, olden days, sun), 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:pg73766:12:90
# text = So by the foot of the greenwood tree was begun the talk of olden days that ended, as the sun declined behind the historic crags of Tamatea, on Taare Tikao’s hospitable verandah, overlooking the little village and the soft blue placid waters of the Whaka-Raupo.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
2	by	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	greenwood	greenwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	begun	begin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	olden	olden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	ended	end	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	declined	decline	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
23	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	historic	historic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	crags	crag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Tamatea	Tamatea	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
31	Taare	Taare	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	Tikao	Tikao	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’s	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	hospitable	hospitable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	verandah	verandah	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	overlooking	overlook	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
43	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
44	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
45	placid	placid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	conj	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
49	Whaka	Whaka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	51	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	49	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	Raupo	Raupo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	46	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past · passive | the foot of the greenwood tree | the talk of olden days |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent talk=Eventuality |
| 2 | **end** | past | olden days |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **decline** | past | the sun |  |  | the historic crags of Tamatea |  | on Taare Tikao's hospitable verandah | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **overlook** | gerund | the sun *not said here* | the little village and the soft blue placid waters of the Whaka Raupo |  |  |  |  | vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent village=Theme |
| 5 | **talk** |  | olden days |  |  |  |  |  | nom talk «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/89/)
- next →: [sentence 91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/91/)
- ↑ back to [Rapaki: a Village By the Sea.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/)