---
title: There was a cliff at O-te-Patatu, says the _Kaumatua_, where the _ti… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a cliff at O-te-Patatu, says the _Kaumatua_, where the _titi_ lived and bred in great numbers in the long ago. Who acts: cliff, Kaumatua, titi _. 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 
---

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# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Little People of the Mist., sentence 53

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There was a cliff at O-te-Patatu, says the \_Kaumatua\_, where the \_titi\_ lived and bred in great numbers in the long ago.

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**Who acts:** cliff, Kaumatua, titi \_ · **What happens:** be, say, live, breed · **To what, where:** great numbers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (cliff, Kaumatua, titi \_), 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:pg73766:14:53
# text = There was a cliff at O-te-Patatu, says the _Kaumatua_, where the _titi_ lived and bred in great numbers in the long ago.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	O	o	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	te	te	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Patatu	Patatu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	_	_	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Kaumatua	Kaumatua	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	23	advmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	titi	titi	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	_	_	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	bred	breed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
32	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a cliff at O te |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the Kaumatua |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **live** | past | the titi \_ |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **breed** | past | the titi \_ *not said here* |  |  | great numbers |  |  | 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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