---
title: Te U-Kura, he says, is an exceedingly ancient designation; it was a… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Te U-Kura, he says, is an exceedingly ancient designation; it was a name given by the fairies. Who acts: Kura, Te, sight. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, The Little People of the Mist., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/36/)

<!-- 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/) / 36

# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Little People of the Mist., sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Te U-Kura, he says, is an exceedingly ancient designation; it was a name given by the fairies.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Kura, Te, sight · **What happens:** say, be, give · **To what, where:** exceedingly ancient designation, name · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Kura, Te, sight), 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:pg73766:14:36
# text = Te U-Kura, he says, is an exceedingly ancient designation; it was a name given by the fairies.
1	Te	te	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
2	U	U	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	Kura	Kura	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	designation	designation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
19	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Kura |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | Te | a exceedingly ancient designation and a name |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | past | sight | a name |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | participle |  | a name *not said here* |  |  |  | by the fairies | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/35/)
- next →: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/37/)
- ↑ back to [The Little People of the Mist.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/14/)