---
title: A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as… — Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Japan» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Japan, sentence 51

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From Wikipedia, [«Japan»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan), 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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A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population.

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**What happens:** believe, kill · **To what, where:** smallpox epidemic, much

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Japan». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:Japan:51
# text = A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	smallpox	smallpox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	epidemic	epidemic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	735	735	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	–	-	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	737	737	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	5	flat	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	believed	believe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux	_	_
12	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	xcomp	_	_
13	as	as	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obj	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	third	third	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	Japan	Japan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	's	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	population	population	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | present · passive |  | a smallpox epidemic in 735 |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **kill** | to-infinitive · perfect |  | much |  |  |  | as one third of Japan's population | vn spend\_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent much=Duration as third=Attribute |

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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, «Japan», 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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