Brazzaville, sentence 27
From Wikipedia, «Brazzaville», revision of the 2026-09-01 dump, CC BY-SA 4.0. The trees and pragmatics of these pages, Mova's parse of that text, are CC BY-SA 4.0 too.
Brazzaville was founded by the French colonial empire upon an existing indigenous Bateke settlement called Ncuna, during the Scramble for Africa when European nations established spheres of influence on the continent.
Who acts: French colonial empire, European nations · What happens: found, exist, call, establish · To what, where: Brazzaville, existing indigenous Bateke settlement, spheres, continent · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Brazzaville». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (French colonial empire, European nations), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong. The article's note marks are left out of the parse.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | Brazzaville | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 founded | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 founded | aux:pass |
| 3 | founded | found | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | by | by | ADP | _ | 8 empire | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 empire | det |
| 6 | French | French | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 empire | amod |
| 7 | colonial | colonial | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 empire | compound |
| 8 | empire | empire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 founded | obl |
| 9 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 14 settlement | case |
| 10 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 settlement | det |
| 11 | existing | exist | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 14 settlement | amod |
| 12 | indigenous | indigenous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 settlement | amod |
| 13 | Bateke | Bateke | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 settlement | compound |
| 14 | settlement | settlement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 empire | nmod |
| 15 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 14 settlement | acl |
| 16 | Ncuna | Ncuna | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 called | xcomp |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 Scramble | punct |
| 18 | during | during | ADP | _ | 20 Scramble | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 Scramble | det |
| 20 | Scramble | Scramble | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 founded | obl |
| 21 | for | for | ADP | _ | 22 Africa | case |
| 22 | Africa | Africa | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 Scramble | nmod |
| 23 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 26 established | advmod |
| 24 | European | European | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 nations | amod |
| 25 | nations | nation | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 established | nsubj |
| 26 | established | establish | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 founded | advcl |
| 27 | spheres | sphere | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 established | obj |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 influence | case |
| 29 | influence | influence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 spheres | nmod |
| 30 | on | on | ADP | _ | 32 continent | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 continent | det |
| 32 | continent | continent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 established | obl |
| 33 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 founded | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | found | past · passive | the French colonial empire upon a existing indigenous Bateke settlement | Brazzaville | during the Scramble for Africa | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient | |||
| 2 | exist | gerund | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 3 | call | participle | a existing indigenous Bateke settlement not said here | Ncuna xcomp | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | establish | past | European nations | spheres of influence | the continent | vn base-97.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent sphere=Theme on continent=Source |
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.
Text: the English Wikipedia, «Brazzaville», 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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Brazzaville/27/