---
title: It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to th… — Colombo · tree and pragmatics
description: It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, retaining its capital status when Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. Who acts: Sri. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Colombo» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Colombo, sentence 6

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From Wikipedia, [«Colombo»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo), 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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It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, retaining its capital status when Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948.

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**Who acts:** Sri · **What happens:** make, cede, retain, gain · **To what, where:** area, Sri, British Empire, 1815, capital status, independence

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Colombo». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sri), 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:Colombo:6
# text = It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, retaining its capital status when Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
10	Sri	Sri	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	Lanka	Lanka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	ceded	cede	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	Empire	Empire	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	1815	1815	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	retaining	retain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	status	status	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
26	Sri	Sri	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	Lanka	Lanka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	flat	_	_
28	gained	gain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
29	independence	independence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	1948	1948	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past · passive |  | area |  |  |  | the capital of the island *xcomp* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **cede** | past · passive |  | Sri | the British Empire | 1815 |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: subject=Theme to empire=Goal |
| 3 | **retain** | gerund |  | area's capital status |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **gain** | past | Sri | independence |  |  |  | in 1948 | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient independence=Extent in 1948=Attribute |

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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, «Colombo», 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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