---
title: Despite being one of the chief vassals of the Sasanian emperor, the… — Azerbaijan · tree and pragmatics
description: Despite being one of the chief vassals of the Sasanian emperor, the Albanian king had only a semblance of authority, and the Sasanian marzban (military governor) held most civil, religious, and military authority. Who acts: Albanian king, Sasanian marzban. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Azerbaijan» with
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/wikipedia/en/Azerbaijan/41/)

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# Azerbaijan, sentence 41

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From Wikipedia, [«Azerbaijan»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan), 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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Despite being one of the chief vassals of the Sasanian emperor, the Albanian king had only a semblance of authority, and the Sasanian marzban (military governor) held most civil, religious, and military authority.

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**Who acts:** Albanian king, Sasanian marzban · **What happens:** be, have, hold · **To what, where:** semblance

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Azerbaijan». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Albanian king, Sasanian marzban), 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:Azerbaijan:41
# text = Despite being one of the chief vassals of the Sasanian emperor, the Albanian king had only a semblance of authority, and the Sasanian marzban (military governor) held most civil, religious, and military authority.
1	Despite	despite	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	cop	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	vassals	vassal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	Sasanian	sasanian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	Albanian	Albanian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	only	only	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	semblance	semblance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	authority	authority	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	Sasanian	Sasanian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	marzban	marzban	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
27	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	military	military	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	governor	governor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	29	punct	_	_
31	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
32	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	33	advmod	_	_
33	civil	civil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	religious	religious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	military	military	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	authority	authority	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | despite one | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | the Albanian king | a semblance of authority |  |  |  | of the chief vassals of the Sasanian emperor | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent semblance=Patient |
| 3 | **hold** | past | the Sasanian marzban |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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, «Azerbaijan», 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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