---
title: It is in fact a huge dyke of once-molten lava, cutting wall-like thr… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: It is in fact a huge dyke of once-molten lava, cutting wall-like through the old lava flows and trending southward across the shoulder of its parent hill. Who acts: spearhead, fact, wall, old lava. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, How the Sa
---

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# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, How the Sacred Fire Came to Witch Hill., sentence 2

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It is in fact a huge dyke of once-molten lava, cutting wall-like through the old lava flows and trending southward across the shoulder of its parent hill.

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**Who acts:** spearhead, fact, wall, old lava · **What happens:** be, cut, like, flow, trend · **To what, where:** fact, wall, shoulder

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This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, How the Sacred Fire Came to Witch Hill.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (spearhead, fact, wall, old lava), 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:pg73766:13:2
# text = It is in fact a huge dyke of once-molten lava, cutting wall-like through the old lava flows and trending southward across the shoulder of its parent hill.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	dyke	dyke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	molten	molten	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	lava	lava	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	cutting	cut	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
15	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	through	through	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	lava	lava	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	flows	flow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	trending	trend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	conj	_	_
25	southward	southward	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	across	across	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	parent	parent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | spearhead |  |  | fact |  | a huge dyke of molten lava *appos* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cut** | gerund | fact *not said here* | wall |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset wall=Product |
| 3 | **like** | present | wall *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **flow** | present | the old lava |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **trend** | gerund | the old lava *not said here* |  |  | the shoulder of spearhead's parent hill |  | southward *property* | 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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