---
title: Often the missionaries besought him to become a Christian, but the g… — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Often the missionaries besought him to become a Christian, but the grim old warlock scoffed at the Rongo Pai. Who acts: missionaries. A sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/77/)

<!-- 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/) / [Rapaki: a Village By the Sea.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/) / 77

# Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea., sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Often the missionaries besought him to become a Christian, but the grim old warlock scoffed at the Rongo Pai.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** missionaries · **What happens:** beseech, become, scoff · **To what, where:** Mahuraki, Christian, grim old warlock, Rongo Pai

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan, Rapaki: a Village By the Sea.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (missionaries), 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:pg73766:12:77
# text = Often the missionaries besought him to become a Christian, but the grim old warlock scoffed at the Rongo Pai.
1	Often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	missionaries	missionary	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	besought	beseech	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Christian	Christian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	grim	grim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	warlock	warlock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
16	scoffed	scoff	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	Rongo	Rongo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	Pai	Pai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beseech** | past | the missionaries | Mahuraki |  |  |  | the grim old warlock *obl*; often *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **become** | to-infinitive | the missionaries *not said here* | a Christian |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Patient christian=Result |
| 3 | **scoff** | participle |  | the grim old warlock *not said here* |  | the Rongo Pai |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/76/)
- next →: [sentence 78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/78/)
- ↑ back to [Rapaki: a Village By the Sea.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/12/)