---
title: From the very crest of the range it shoots in a palisade of frost-sh… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: From the very crest of the range it shoots in a palisade of frost-shattered rock, towering thirty feet and more in places above the stone-strewn tussocks, and it stretches some distance in irregular cyclopean steps down the steep slope towards Rapaki. Who acts: lava. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/13/3/)

<!-- 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/) / [How the Sacred Fire Came to Witch Hill.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/13/) / 3

# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, How the Sacred Fire Came to Witch Hill., sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
From the very crest of the range it shoots in a palisade of frost-shattered rock, towering thirty feet and more in places above the stone-strewn tussocks, and it stretches some distance in irregular cyclopean steps down the steep slope towards Rapaki.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** lava · **What happens:** shoot, shatter, tower, stretch · **To what, where:** crest, thirty feet, places, distance

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (lava), 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:pg73766:13:3
# text = From the very crest of the range it shoots in a palisade of frost-shattered rock, towering thirty feet and more in places above the stone-strewn tussocks, and it stretches some distance in irregular cyclopean steps down the steep slope towards Rapaki.
1	From	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	crest	crest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	range	range	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	shoots	shoot	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	palisade	palisade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	frost	frost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	shattered	shatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	towering	tower	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
20	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	conj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
26	above	above	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
28	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	strewn	strewn	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	tussocks	tussock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	stretches	stretch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
36	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	37	det	_	_
37	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	irregular	irregular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
40	cyclopean	cyclopean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	_
42	down	down	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	slope	slope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	_
46	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	Rapaki	Rapaki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shoot** | present | lava |  |  | the crest of the range |  | in a palisade of shattered rock | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in palisade=Destination |
| 2 | **shatter** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | frost *compound* | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **tower** | gerund | lava *not said here* | thirty feet |  | places above the strewn tussocks |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location foot=Theme |
| 4 | **stretch** | present | lava | some distance |  |  |  | in irregular cyclopean steps down the steep slope towards Rapaki | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent distance=Patient in step=Topic |

<!-- .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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/13/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/13/4/)
- ↑ back to [How the Sacred Fire Came to Witch Hill.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/13/)