---
title: Pre-colonial land interests (referred to as native title in Australi… — Australia · tree and pragmatics
description: Pre-colonial land interests (referred to as native title in Australia) were recognised in law for the first time when the High Court of Australia held in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) that Australia was not terra nullius at the time of European settlement. Who acts: High Court, Australia. A sentence of W
---

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# Australia, sentence 108

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From Wikipedia, [«Australia»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia), 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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Pre-colonial land interests (referred to as native title in Australia) were recognised in law for the first time when the High Court of Australia held in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) that Australia was not terra nullius at the time of European settlement.

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**Who acts:** High Court, Australia · **What happens:** refer, recognise, hold, not be · **To what, where:** Pre-colonial land interests, law, Mabo, terra nullius

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Australia». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (High Court, Australia), 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:Australia:108
# text = Pre-colonial land interests (referred to as native title in Australia) were recognised in law for the first time when the High Court of Australia held in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) that Australia was not terra nullius at the time of European settlement.
1	Pre-colonial	pre-colonial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
2	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	interests	interest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	referred	refer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	obl	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	title	title	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Australia	Australia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	5	punct	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	recognised	recognise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	20	amod	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	High	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	Court	Court	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	Australia	Australia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	Mabo	Mabo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
30	v	v	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	Queensland	Queensland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	34	det	_	_
34	2	2	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	31	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	34	punct	_	_
36	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
37	Australia	Australia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
39	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	41	advmod	_	_
40	terra	terra	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	compound	_	_
41	nullius	nullius	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	advcl	_	_
42	at	at	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	European	European	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	settlement	settlement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refer** | participle |  | Pre-colonial land interests *not said here* |  |  |  | as native title in Australia | vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **recognise** | past · passive |  | Pre-colonial land interests |  | law | time |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hold** | past | the High Court of Australia |  |  | Mabo |  | v Queensland | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in mabo=Location |
| 4 | **not** **is a** | past | Australia | terra nullius |  |  | time |  | 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, «Australia», 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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