---
title: At the time the cyclone struck, he was the lone inhabitant of Fongaf… — Funafuti · tree and pragmatics
description: At the time the cyclone struck, he was the lone inhabitant of Fongafale, Funafuti's largest islet, because Tema, a Samoan missionary, had taken everyone else to Funafala to work on erecting a church. Who acts: cyclone. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Funafuti» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Funafuti, sentence 35

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From Wikipedia, [«Funafuti»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funafuti), 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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At the time the cyclone struck, he was the lone inhabitant of Fongafale, Funafuti's largest islet, because Tema, a Samoan missionary, had taken everyone else to Funafala to work on erecting a church.

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**Who acts:** cyclone · **What happens:** strike, be, take, work, erect · **To what, where:** time, lone inhabitant, Tema, Funafala, church

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Funafuti». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cyclone), 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:Funafuti:35
# text = At the time the cyclone struck, he was the lone inhabitant of Fongafale, Funafuti's largest islet, because Tema, a Samoan missionary, had taken everyone else to Funafala to work on erecting a church.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	cyclone	cyclone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	lone	lone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	inhabitant	inhabitant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Fongafale	Fongafale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	Funafuti	Funafuti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	largest	large	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	amod	_	_
19	islet	islet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
21	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
22	Tema	Tema	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	Samoan	samoan	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	missionary	missionary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	parataxis	_	_
30	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	29	obj	_	_
31	else	else	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	Funafala	Funafala	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
36	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
37	erecting	erect	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	advcl	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | the cyclone | the time *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent time=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | Cyclone | the lone inhabitant |  |  | time | of Fongafale | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past · perfect · passive |  | Tema | Funafala |  |  | everyone *obj* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme everyone=Destination |
| 4 | **work** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **erect** | gerund |  | a church |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent church=Product |

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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, «Funafuti», 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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