---
title: The Portuguese government was also interested in the area, so, to pr… — Malawi · tree and pragmatics
description: The Portuguese government was also interested in the area, so, to prevent Portuguese occupation, the British government sent Harry Johnston as consul with instructions to make treaties with local rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction. Who acts: Portuguese government, British government. A sentence o
---

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# Malawi, sentence 35

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From Wikipedia, [«Malawi»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malawi), 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.

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The Portuguese government was also interested in the area, so, to prevent Portuguese occupation, the British government sent Harry Johnston as consul with instructions to make treaties with local rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction.

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**Who acts:** Portuguese government, British government · **What happens:** be, prevent, send, make · **To what, where:** area, Portuguese occupation, Harry, treaties

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Malawi». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Portuguese government, British government), 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 article's note marks are left out of the parse.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = wikipedia:Malawi:35
# text = The Portuguese government was also interested in the area, so, to prevent Portuguese occupation, the British government sent Harry Johnston as consul with instructions to make treaties with local rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Portuguese	portuguese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	also	also	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	interested	interested	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	area	area	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
15	Portuguese	portuguese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	occupation	occupation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
22	Harry	Harry	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	Johnston	Johnston	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	flat	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	consul	consul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	instructions	instruction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
30	treaties	treaty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	local	local	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	rulers	ruler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	_
34	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	Portuguese	portuguese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	jurisdiction	jurisdiction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Portuguese government |  |  | the area |  | interested *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **prevent** | to-infinitive | the Portuguese government *not said here* | Portuguese occupation |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer occupation=Theme |
| 3 | **send** | past | the British government | Harry |  |  |  | as consul; with instructions | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harry=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | the British government *not said here* | treaties |  |  |  | with local rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset treaty=Product |

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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:** the English Wikipedia, «Malawi», 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.

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