---
title: It would have been a uniform billiard-table on an enormous scale, ve… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: It would have been a uniform billiard-table on an enormous scale, very gently sloping to the sea, with scarcely a break but for the snow rivers and with never a usable natural harbour. Who acts: coast. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, The St
---

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# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Story of the Rocks., sentence 7

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It would have been a uniform billiard-table on an enormous scale, very gently sloping to the sea, with scarcely a break but for the snow rivers and with never a usable natural harbour.

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**Who acts:** coast · **What happens:** be, slope · **To what, where:** uniform billiard table, enormous scale

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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 (coast), 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:pg73766:9:7
# text = It would have been a uniform billiard-table on an enormous scale, very gently sloping to the sea, with scarcely a break but for the snow rivers and with never a usable natural harbour.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
6	uniform	uniform	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
7	billiard	billiard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	enormous	enormous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	scale	scale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	sloping	slope	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	break	break	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
33	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	usable	usable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
36	natural	natural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	harbour	harbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | would · perfect | coast | a uniform billiard table |  | a enormous scale |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **slope** | gerund | coast *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the sea; with a break but the snow rivers and a usable natural harbour; gently *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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