---
title: What the Canterbury coast would have been like but for the vast volc… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: What the Canterbury coast would have been like but for the vast volcanic convulsions which formed these ranges and huge craters is not difficult to imagine. Who acts: Canterbury coast, vast volcanic convulsions. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cow
---

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# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Story of the Rocks., sentence 6

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What the Canterbury coast would have been like but for the vast volcanic convulsions which formed these ranges and huge craters is not difficult to imagine.

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**Who acts:** Canterbury coast, vast volcanic convulsions · **What happens:** have, be, form, not be, imagine · **To what, where:** ranges

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This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, The Story of the Rocks.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Canterbury coast, vast volcanic convulsions), 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:pg73766:9:6
# text = What the Canterbury coast would have been like but for the vast volcanic convulsions which formed these ranges and huge craters is not difficult to imagine.
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	Canterbury	Canterbury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	coast	coast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	cop	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	volcanic	volcanic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	convulsions	convulsion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	formed	form	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	ranges	range	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	craters	crater	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	advcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | would | the Canterbury coast *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | like the vast volcanic convulsions | tree rules |
| 3 | **form** | past | the vast volcanic convulsions | this ranges and huge craters |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location range=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present | the vast volcanic convulsions *not said here* |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **imagine** | to-infinitive | the vast volcanic convulsions *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

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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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