---
title: During World War I, France played a decisive role in defeating the C… — France · tree and pragmatics
description: During World War I, France played a decisive role in defeating the Central Powers as part of the Triple Entente, while participating in the majority of the war's major battles fought on the Western Front. Who acts: France, participating, war. A sentence of Wikipedia's «France» with its dependency tr
---

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# France, sentence 166

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From Wikipedia, [«France»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France), 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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During World War I, France played a decisive role in defeating the Central Powers as part of the Triple Entente, while participating in the majority of the war's major battles fought on the Western Front.

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**Who acts:** France, participating, war · **What happens:** play, defeat, participate, fight, battle · **To what, where:** decisive role, Central Powers, Western Front

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «France». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (France, participating, war), 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:France:166
# text = During World War I, France played a decisive role in defeating the Central Powers as part of the Triple Entente, while participating in the majority of the war's major battles fought on the Western Front.
1	During	during	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	World	World	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	War	War	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	France	France	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	decisive	decisive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	role	role	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	defeating	defeat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	Central	Central	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	Powers	power	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Triple	Triple	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Entente	Entente	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	participating	participate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	csubj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	majority	majority	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	's	's	PART	POS	_	30	case	_	_
32	major	major	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	battles	battle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	_
34	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	Western	western	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	Front	Front	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past | France | a decisive role |  |  | during World War  I |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent role=Theme |
| 2 | **defeat** | gerund | France *not said here* | the Central Powers |  |  |  | as part of the Triple Entente | tree rules |
| 3 | **participate** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | in the majority of the war's major battles | vn cooperate-73.1-2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in majority=Theme |
| 4 | **fight** | past | participating |  |  | the Western Front |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **battle** |  | the war |  |  |  |  |  | nom battle «act 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, «France», 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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