---
title: One day when it rained and blew, we were motoring over the hills fro… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: One day when it rained and blew, we were motoring over the hills from the Plains to Akaroa, scarcely able to see twenty yards in front of the car when we ran cautiously round to Hilltop. Who acts: it, we. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, The
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/31/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Little People of the Mist.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/) / 31

# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Little People of the Mist., sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day when it rained and blew, we were motoring over the hills from the Plains to Akaroa, scarcely able to see twenty yards in front of the car when we ran cautiously round to Hilltop.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, we · **What happens:** rain, blow, motor, see, run, hilltop · **To what, where:** Akaroa, hills, twenty yards, front

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (it, we), 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:pg73766:14:31
# text = One day when it rained and blew, we were motoring over the hills from the Plains to Akaroa, scarcely able to see twenty yards in front of the car when we ran cautiously round to Hilltop.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	rained	rain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	blew	blow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	motoring	motor	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
12	over	over	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Plains	Plain	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Akaroa	Akaroa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	advcl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	yards	yard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	car	car	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
33	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
35	cautiously	cautiously	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	round	round	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	Hilltop	hilltop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rain** | past | it |  |  |  | day |  | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme» |
| 2 | **blow** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **motor** | past · progressive | we |  | Akaroa | the hills from the Plains |  |  | vn vehicle-51.4.1 «NP.theme V PP.location»: agent=Theme over hill=Trajectory |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | twenty yards |  | front of the car |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer yard=Stimulus |
| 5 | **run** | past | we |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **hilltop** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/30/)
- next →: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/32/)
- ↑ back to [The Little People of the Mist.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/)