---
title: They were the hills of an artist’s dream this golden afternoon, all… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: They were the hills of an artist’s dream this golden afternoon, all their asperities of crag and bare bluff softened and gilded by the mellow light of a calm, bright, windless day. Who acts: Hills, artist. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, Th
---

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# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Little People of the Mist., sentence 2

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They were the hills of an artist’s dream this golden afternoon, all their asperities of crag and bare bluff softened and gilded by the mellow light of a calm, bright, windless day.

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**Who acts:** Hills, artist · **What happens:** be, soften, gild, dream, light · **To what, where:** hills, bare bluff, calm bright windless day

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This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, The Little People of the Mist.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hills, artist), 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:pg73766:14:2
# text = They were the hills of an artist’s dream this golden afternoon, all their asperities of crag and bare bluff softened and gilded by the mellow light of a calm, bright, windless day.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	artist	artist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’s	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	dream	dream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
11	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	asperities	asperity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	crag	crag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	bluff	bluff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
22	softened	soften	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	gilded	gild	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	mellow	mellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
31	calm	calm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
33	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
35	windless	windless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Hills *= hill* | the hills and Hills's asperities of crag and bare bluff |  |  | afternoon | of a artist's dream; Hills's asperities of crag and bare bluff *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **soften** | participle |  | bare bluff *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **gild** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | by the mellow light of a calm bright windless day | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **dream** |  | a artist |  |  |  |  |  | nom dream «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **light** |  |  | a calm bright windless day |  |  |  |  | nom light «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |

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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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