---
title: Likewise, in 985, the Jerusalemite historian al-Muqaddasi described… — Amman · tree and pragmatics
description: Likewise, in 985, the Jerusalemite historian al-Muqaddasi described Amman as the capital of Balqa, that it was a town in the desert fringe of Syria surrounded by villages and cornfields and a regional source of lambs, grain and honey. Who acts: Jerusalemite historian, historian. A sentence of Wikipe
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Amman/87/)

<!-- 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/) / [Amman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Amman/) / 87

# Amman, sentence 87

<!-- div src -->

From Wikipedia, [«Amman»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amman), 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 -->
Likewise, in 985, the Jerusalemite historian al-Muqaddasi described Amman as the capital of Balqa, that it was a town in the desert fringe of Syria surrounded by villages and cornfields and a regional source of lambs, grain and honey.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jerusalemite historian, historian · **What happens:** describe, be, surround · **To what, where:** Amman, 985, town, desert fringe

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Amman». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jerusalemite historian, historian), 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:Amman:87
# text = Likewise, in 985, the Jerusalemite historian al-Muqaddasi described Amman as the capital of Balqa, that it was a town in the desert fringe of Syria surrounded by villages and cornfields and a regional source of lambs, grain and honey.
1	Likewise	likewise	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	985	985	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Jerusalemite	Jerusalemite	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	historian	historian	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	al	Al	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Muqaddasi	Muqaddasi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	flat	_	_
12	described	describe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	Amman	Amman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Balqa	Balqa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	parataxis	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	fringe	fringe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	Syria	Syria	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	surrounded	surround	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
32	by	by	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	villages	village	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl:agent	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	cornfields	cornfield	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	conj	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	regional	regional	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	source	source	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	lambs	lamb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
43	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **describe** | past | the Jerusalemite historian | Amman |  | 985 |  | as the capital of Balqa; likewise *property* | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent amman=Theme as capital=Attribute |
| 2 | **is a** | past | historian | a town |  | the desert fringe of Syria and a regional source of lambs |  | grain and honey *obl* | tree rules |
| 3 | **surround** | participle |  | the desert fringe of Syria and a regional source of lambs *not said here* |  |  |  | villages and cornfields *obl:agent* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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, «Amman», 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 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Amman/86/)
- next →: [sentence 88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Amman/88/)
- ↑ back to [Amman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Amman/)