---
title: In the early 19th century, the British sought to reform the settlers… — Belize · tree and pragmatics
description: In the early 19th century, the British sought to reform the settlers, threatening to suspend the Public Meeting unless it observed the government's instructions to eliminate slavery outright. Who acts: British, government. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Belize» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Belize, sentence 58

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From Wikipedia, [«Belize»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belize), 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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In the early 19th century, the British sought to reform the settlers, threatening to suspend the Public Meeting unless it observed the government's instructions to eliminate slavery outright.

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**Who acts:** British, government · **What happens:** seek, reform, threaten, suspend, observe, eliminate · **To what, where:** settlers, Public Meeting, instructions, slavery

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Belize». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (British, government), 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:Belize:58
# text = In the early 19th century, the British sought to reform the settlers, threatening to suspend the Public Meeting unless it observed the government's instructions to eliminate slavery outright.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	early	early	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	19th	19th	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Combi|NumType=Ord	5	amod	_	_
5	century	century	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	British	British	PROPN	NNP	_	9	nsubj	_	_
9	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	reform	reform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	settlers	settler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	threatening	threaten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	suspend	suspend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	Public	public	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	Meeting	meeting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	observed	observe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	instructions	instruction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	eliminate	eliminate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
30	slavery	slavery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
31	outright	outright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | past | the British |  |  |  | century |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reform** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the British *not said here* | the settlers |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent settler=Patient |
| 3 | **threaten** | gerund | the British *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **suspend** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the British *not said here* | the Public Meeting |  |  |  |  | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meeting=Theme |
| 5 | **observe** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | British | the government's instructions |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent instruction=Topic |
| 6 | **eliminate** | to-infinitive | British *not said here* | slavery |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slavery=Patient |
| 7 | **instruct** |  | the government |  |  |  |  |  | nom instruction «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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, «Belize», 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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