---
title: The armed forces are under the direction of the Minister of Defense… — Madagascar · tree and pragmatics
description: The armed forces are under the direction of the Minister of Defense and have remained largely neutral during times of political crisis, as during the protracted standoff between incumbent Ratsiraka and challenger Ravalomanana in the disputed 2001 presidential elections, when the military refused to 
---

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# Madagascar, sentence 331

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From Wikipedia, [«Madagascar»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar), 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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The armed forces are under the direction of the Minister of Defense and have remained largely neutral during times of political crisis, as during the protracted standoff between incumbent Ratsiraka and challenger Ravalomanana in the disputed 2001 presidential elections, when the military refused to intervene in favor of either candidate.

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**Who acts:** armed forces, military · **What happens:** be, remain, protract, dispute, refuse, not intervene · **To what, where:** direction, favor, candidate

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Madagascar». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (armed forces, military), 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:Madagascar:331
# text = The armed forces are under the direction of the Minister of Defense and have remained largely neutral during times of political crisis, as during the protracted standoff between incumbent Ratsiraka and challenger Ravalomanana in the disputed 2001 presidential elections, when the military refused to intervene in favor of either candidate.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	armed	armed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	forces	force	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	under	under	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Minister	Minister	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Defense	Defense	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	remained	remain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
16	largely	largely	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	neutral	neutral	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	_
18	during	during	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	political	political	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	crisis	crisis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	during	during	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	protracted	protract	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	amod	_	_
28	standoff	standoff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	parataxis	_	_
29	between	between	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	incumbent	incumbent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	Ratsiraka	Ratsiraka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	appos	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	challenger	challenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
34	Ravalomanana	Ravalomanana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	flat	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
37	disputed	dispute	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	amod	_	_
38	2001	2001	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	40	compound	_	_
39	presidential	presidential	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	elections	election	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
42	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	45	advmod	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	military	military	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
45	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	_
46	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
47	intervene	intervene	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	xcomp	_	_
48	in	in	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	favor	favor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
50	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	52	det	_	_
52	candidate	candidate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the armed forces |  |  | the direction |  | of the Minister of Defense | tree rules |
| 2 | **remain** | present · perfect | the armed forces *not said here* |  |  |  |  | the protracted standoff between incumbent in the disputed 2001 presidential elections *parataxis*; neutral *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **protract** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **dispute** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **refuse** | past | the military |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **intervene** | to-infinitive | the military *not said here* |  |  | favor of either candidate |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **favor** |  |  | either candidate |  |  |  |  | nom favor «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, «Madagascar», 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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