---
title: On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory… — Cuba · tree and pragmatics
description: On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory—but accepting it in practice—and declaring free any slaves whose masters presented them for military service. Who acts: Céspedes, decree, free slaves. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Cuba» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Cuba, sentence 73

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From Wikipedia, [«Cuba»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba), 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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On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory—but accepting it in practice—and declaring free any slaves whose masters presented them for military service.

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**Who acts:** Céspedes, decree, free slaves · **What happens:** issue, condemn, accept, declare, present · **To what, where:** decree, 27, slavery, theory, practice, masters

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Cuba». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Céspedes, decree, free slaves), 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:Cuba:73
# text = On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory—but accepting it in practice—and declaring free any slaves whose masters presented them for military service.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	27	27	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	7	obl	_	_
3	December	December	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:unmarked	_	_
4	1868	1868	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	issued	issue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	decree	decree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	condemning	condemn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	slavery	slavery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	theory	theory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	accepting	accept	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	practice	practice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	declaring	declare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
23	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
26	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	presented	present	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	military	military	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **issue** | past | Céspedes | a decree |  | 27 |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location decree=Theme |
| 2 | **condemn** | gerund | a decree *not said here* | slavery |  | theory |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slavery=Theme |
| 3 | **accept** | gerund | Céspedes *not said here* | slavery |  | practice |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **declare** *speech: other* | gerund | Céspedes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **present** | past | any free slaves | masters *= master* |  |  |  | for military service | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Theme for service=Recipient |

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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, «Cuba», 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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