---
title: The forests were dominated by birds, and the lack of mammalian preda… — New Zealand · tree and pragmatics
description: The forests were dominated by birds, and the lack of mammalian predators led to some, like the kiwi, kākāpō, weka and takahē, evolving flightlessness. Who acts: birds, lack. A sentence of Wikipedia's «New Zealand» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/New_Zealand/137/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [wikipedia](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/) / [en](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/) / [New Zealand](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/New_Zealand/) / 137

# New Zealand, sentence 137

<!-- div src -->

From Wikipedia, [«New Zealand»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand), revision of the 2026-09-01 dump, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). The trees and pragmatics of these pages, Mova's parse of that text, are CC BY-SA 4.0 too.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The forests were dominated by birds, and the lack of mammalian predators led to some, like the kiwi, kākāpō, weka and takahē, evolving flightlessness.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** birds, lack · **What happens:** dominate, lead, evolve, lack · **To what, where:** forests, flightlessness, mammalian predators

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «New Zealand». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds, lack), 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 article's note marks are left out of the parse.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = wikipedia:New_Zealand:137
# text = The forests were dominated by birds, and the lack of mammalian predators led to some, like the kiwi, kākāpō, weka and takahē, evolving flightlessness.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	dominated	dominate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	lack	lack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	mammalian	mammalian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	predators	predator	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	like	like	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	kiwi	kiwi	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	kākāpō	kākāpō	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	weka	weka	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	takahē	takahē	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	evolving	evolve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
29	flightlessness	flightlessness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dominate** | past · passive | birds | the forests |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **lead** | past | the lack of mammalian predators |  |  |  |  | to some; like the kiwi and kākāpō | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition to some=Patient |
| 3 | **evolve** | gerund | the lack of mammalian predators *not said here* | flightlessness |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location flightlessness=Theme |
| 4 | **lack** |  |  | mammalian predators |  |  |  |  | nom lack «state transitive»: of=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:** the English Wikipedia, «New Zealand», revision of the 2026-09-01 dump, CC BY-SA 4.0. **Tree:** Mova's own parse, CC BY-SA 4.0 as the text is. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the article read in order, CC BY-SA 4.0.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 136](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/New_Zealand/136/)
- next →: [sentence 138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/New_Zealand/138/)
- ↑ back to [New Zealand](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/New_Zealand/)