---
title: So the olden folk occasionally displayed a fine taste in names; and… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: So the olden folk occasionally displayed a fine taste in names; and although some of those names may be a trifle long for _pakeha_ use it would be well to save them from oblivion. Who acts: olden folk, some, _ pakeha _. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by J
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/17/)

<!-- 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 Port Hills and Their Names.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/) / 17

# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, The Port Hills and Their Names., sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the olden folk occasionally displayed a fine taste in names; and although some of those names may be a trifle long for \_pakeha\_ use it would be well to save them from oblivion.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** olden folk, some, \_ pakeha \_ · **What happens:** display, be, use, save · **To what, where:** fine taste, names, trifle, taste, \_, oblivion

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, The Port Hills and Their Names.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (olden folk, some, \_ pakeha \_), 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:pg73766:10:17
# text = So the olden folk occasionally displayed a fine taste in names; and although some of those names may be a trifle long for _pakeha_ use it would be well to save them from oblivion.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	olden	olden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	occasionally	occasionally	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	displayed	display	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	taste	taste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	names	name	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
14	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	names	name	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	trifle	trifle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
23	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	_	_	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	pakeha	pakeha	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	_	_	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	use	use	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
32	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	from	from	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	oblivion	oblivion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **display** | past | the olden folk | a fine taste |  | names |  | occasionally *property* | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent taste=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | may | some of that names | a trifle |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **use** | present | \_ pakeha \_ | taste |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **save** | to-infinitive | \_ pakeha \_ *not said here* | \_ |  | oblivion |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent they=Theme from oblivion=Source |

<!-- .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 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/16/)
- next →: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/18/)
- ↑ back to [The Port Hills and Their Names.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/)