---
title: In the case of water, electricity and telephone utility services, th… — Colombo · tree and pragmatics
description: In the case of water, electricity and telephone utility services, the council liaises with the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB), the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and telephone service providers operating in the country respectively. Who acts: council, service providers. A sentence 
---

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# Colombo, sentence 82

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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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In the case of water, electricity and telephone utility services, the council liaises with the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB), the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and telephone service providers operating in the country respectively.

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**Who acts:** council, service providers · **What happens:** liaise, telephone, operate · **To what, where:** case, service providers, country

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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 (council, service providers), 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:82
# text = In the case of water, electricity and telephone utility services, the council liaises with the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB), the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and telephone service providers operating in the country respectively.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	electricity	electricity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	telephone	telephone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
10	utility	utility	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	services	service	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	council	council	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	liaises	liaise	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	National	National	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	Water	Water	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	Supply	Supply	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	Drainage	Drainage	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	Board	Board	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
24	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	NWSDB	NWSDB	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	Ceylon	Ceylon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
30	Electricity	Electricity	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	Board	Board	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
32	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	CEB	CEB	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	33	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	telephone	telephone	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
37	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	providers	provider	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	_
39	operating	operate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	38	acl	_	_
40	in	in	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
43	respectively	respectively	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **liaise** | present | the council |  |  | the case of water and electricity and telephone utility services |  | with the National Water Supply and Drainage Board and the Ceylon Electricity Board | tree rules |
| 2 | **telephone** *speech: other* | infinitive | the council *not said here* | service providers |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent provider=Recipient |
| 3 | **operate** | gerund | service providers *not said here* |  |  | the country |  | respectively *property* | vn function-105.2.1-1 «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, «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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