---
title: Referendums have played a key role in shaping French politics and ev… — France · tree and pragmatics
description: Referendums have played a key role in shaping French politics and even foreign policy; voters have decided on such matters as Algeria's independence, the election of the president by popular vote, the formation of the EU, and the reduction of presidential term limits. Who acts: key role, such. A sen
---

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# France, sentence 270

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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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Referendums have played a key role in shaping French politics and even foreign policy; voters have decided on such matters as Algeria's independence, the election of the president by popular vote, the formation of the EU, and the reduction of presidential term limits.

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**Who acts:** key role, such · **What happens:** play, shape, decide, matter, elect, reduce · **To what, where:** Referendums, French politics, voters, president, term limits · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (key role, such), 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:270
# text = Referendums have played a key role in shaping French politics and even foreign policy; voters have decided on such matters as Algeria's independence, the election of the president by popular vote, the formation of the EU, and the reduction of presidential term limits.
1	Referendums	referendum	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	played	play	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	key	key	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	role	role	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	shaping	shape	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
9	French	French	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	politics	politics	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	8	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	even	even	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	foreign	foreign	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	policy	policy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	voters	voter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	decided	decide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP	21	nsubj	_	_
21	matters	matter	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	Algeria	Algeria	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	independence	independence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	election	election	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	president	president	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	by	by	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	popular	popular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	vote	vote	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	formation	formation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	EU	EU	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	reduction	reduction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
46	presidential	presidential	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	term	term	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	compound	_	_
48	limits	limit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | present · perfect · passive |  | Referendums |  |  |  | a key role *obj*; the reduction of term limits *parataxis* | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary role=Theme |
| 2 | **shape** | gerund | a key role *not said here* | French politics and foreign policy |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset politics=Product |
| 3 | **decide** | present · perfect · passive |  | voters |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: subject=Co-Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **matter** | present | such |  |  |  |  | as Algeria's independence and the election of the president; by popular vote and the formation of the EU | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **elect** |  |  | the president |  |  |  |  | nom election «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **reduce** |  |  | term limits |  |  |  |  | nom reduction «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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