---
title: In the past, rival groups had been known to use axes, bush knives an… — Papua New Guinea · tree and pragmatics
description: In the past, rival groups had been known to use axes, bush knives and traditional weapons, while respecting rules of engagement that prevented violence while hunting or at markets. Who acts: engagement. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Papua New Guinea» 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/Papua_New_Guinea/302/)

<!-- 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/) / [Papua New Guinea](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Papua_New_Guinea/) / 302

# Papua New Guinea, sentence 302

<!-- div src -->

From Wikipedia, [«Papua New Guinea»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papua_New_Guinea), 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 -->
In the past, rival groups had been known to use axes, bush knives and traditional weapons, while respecting rules of engagement that prevented violence while hunting or at markets.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** engagement · **What happens:** know, use, respect, prevent, hunt, rule · **To what, where:** rival groups, past, axes, rules, violence

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Papua New Guinea». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (engagement), 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:Papua_New_Guinea:302
# text = In the past, rival groups had been known to use axes, bush knives and traditional weapons, while respecting rules of engagement that prevented violence while hunting or at markets.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	rival	rival	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	groups	group	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	axes	ax	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	knives	knife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	traditional	traditional	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	weapons	weapon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	respecting	respect	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
22	rules	rule	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	engagement	engagement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	prevented	prevent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
27	violence	violence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	markets	market	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past · perfect · passive |  | rival groups |  | the past |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | to-infinitive |  | axes and bush knives and traditional weapons |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ax=Patient |
| 3 | **respect** | gerund |  | rules of engagement |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer rule=Stimulus |
| 4 | **prevent** | past | engagement | violence |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer violence=Theme |
| 5 | **hunt** | gerund | engagement *not said here* |  |  |  |  | markets *conj* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **rule** |  | engagement |  |  |  |  |  | nom rule «cognition intransitive»: of=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:** the English Wikipedia, «Papua New Guinea», 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 301](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Papua_New_Guinea/301/)
- next →: [sentence 303](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Papua_New_Guinea/303/)
- ↑ back to [Papua New Guinea](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Papua_New_Guinea/)