---
title: How can a small power like Afghanistan, which is like a goat between… — Afghanistan · tree and pragmatics
description: How can a small power like Afghanistan, which is like a goat between these lions [Britain and Russia] or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones of the grinding mill, stand in the midway of the stones without being ground to dust? — Abdur Rahman Khan, the "Iron Amir", in 1900 Who acts: small 
---

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# Afghanistan, sentence 107

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From Wikipedia, [«Afghanistan»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan), 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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How can a small power like Afghanistan, which is like a goat between these lions \[Britain and Russia\] or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones of the grinding mill, stand in the midway of the stones without being ground to dust? — Abdur Rahman Khan, the "Iron Amir", in 1900

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**Who acts:** small power · **What happens:** be, stand · **To what, where:** Britain, midway, small power

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Afghanistan». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (small power), 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:Afghanistan:107
# text = How can a small power like Afghanistan, which is like a goat between these lions [Britain and Russia] or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones of the grinding mill, stand in the midway of the stones without being ground to dust? — Abdur Rahman Khan, the "Iron Amir", in 1900
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Afghanistan	Afghanistan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
14	between	between	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
16	lions	lion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	_
17	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Britain	Britain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	Russia	Russia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	20	punct	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	wheat	wheat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	between	between	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
29	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	millstones	millstone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	grinding	grinding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
36	stand	stand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	midway	midway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod	_	_
43	without	without	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	45	cop	_	_
45	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
46	to	to	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	_
49	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	50	punct	_	_
50	Abdur	Abdur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
51	Rahman	Rahman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	flat	_	_
52	Khan	Khan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
55	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	57	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	Iron	Iron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	57	compound	_	_
57	Amir	Amir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	57	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
60	in	in	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
61	1900	1900	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	50	list	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | a small power like Afghanistan and a goat and Abdur |  |  |  |  | like a goat | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** | infinitive |  | Britain and Russia or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones of the grinding mill |  | the midway of the stones |  | between this lions | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent between lion=Location |
| 3 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | without ground; to dust | tree rules |

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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, «Afghanistan», 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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