---
title: Many historians had long believed that the city-states were establis… — Kenya · tree and pragmatics
description: Many historians had long believed that the city-states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archaeological evidence has led scholars to recognise the city-states as an indigenous development which, though subjected to foreign influence due to trade, retained a Bantu cultural core. Who ac
---

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# Kenya, sentence 71

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From Wikipedia, [«Kenya»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya), 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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Many historians had long believed that the city-states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archaeological evidence has led scholars to recognise the city-states as an indigenous development which, though subjected to foreign influence due to trade, retained a Bantu cultural core.

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**Who acts:** Arab traders, archaeological evidence, indigenous development · **What happens:** believe, establish, lead, recognise, subject, retain · **To what, where:** Many historians, city states, archaeological evidence, Bantu cultural core · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Kenya». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Arab traders, archaeological evidence, indigenous development), 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:Kenya:71
# text = Many historians had long believed that the city-states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archaeological evidence has led scholars to recognise the city-states as an indigenous development which, though subjected to foreign influence due to trade, retained a Bantu cultural core.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	historians	historian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	believed	believe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	states	state	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	established	establish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	ccomp	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	Arab	Arab	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	Persian	persian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
17	traders	trader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	archaeological	archaeological	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	evidence	evidence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	led	lead	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
24	scholars	scholar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	recognise	recognise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	states	state	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
31	as	as	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	indigenous	indigenous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	development	development	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
35	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	46	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
37	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
38	subjected	subject	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	37	acl	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	foreign	foreign	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	influence	influence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
42	due	due	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP	44	case	_	_
43	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	fixed	_	_
44	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
46	retained	retain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	acl:relcl	_	_
47	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
48	Bantu	Bantu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	compound	_	_
49	cultural	cultural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	core	core	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | past · perfect · passive |  | Many historians |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **establish** | past · passive | Arab traders | the city states |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 3 | **lead** | present · perfect · passive |  | archaeological evidence |  |  |  | scholars *obj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **recognise** | to-infinitive | archaeological evidence *not said here* | the city states |  |  |  | as a indigenous development | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer state=Stimulus as development=Attribute |
| 5 | **subject** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | to foreign influence; due trade | tree rules |
| 6 | **retain** | past | a indigenous development | a Bantu cultural core |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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, «Kenya», 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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