---
title: In the Central Highlands, Merina traditions hold that they encounter… — Madagascar · tree and pragmatics
description: In the Central Highlands, Merina traditions hold that they encountered the Vazimba when gradually settling the highlands from the southeast, thought to have been completed by the 15th century. Who acts: Merina traditions, traditions. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Madagascar» with its dependency tree an
---

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# Madagascar, sentence 96

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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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In the Central Highlands, Merina traditions hold that they encountered the Vazimba when gradually settling the highlands from the southeast, thought to have been completed by the 15th century.

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**Who acts:** Merina traditions, traditions · **What happens:** hold, encounter, settle, think, complete · **To what, where:** Central Highlands, Vazimba, highlands, southeast

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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 (Merina traditions, traditions), 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:96
# text = In the Central Highlands, Merina traditions hold that they encountered the Vazimba when gradually settling the highlands from the southeast, thought to have been completed by the 15th century.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	Central	Central	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	flat	_	_
4	Highlands	Highlands	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	Merina	Merina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	traditions	tradition	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	hold	hold	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	encountered	encounter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Vazimba	Vazimba	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	gradually	gradually	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	settling	settle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	highlands	highland	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	southeast	southeast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
26	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	completed	complete	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	xcomp	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	15th	15th	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	century	century	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | present | Merina traditions |  |  | the Central Highlands |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **encounter** | past | traditions *= tradition* | the Vazimba |  |  |  |  | vn encounter-30.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer vazimba=Stimulus |
| 3 | **settle** | gerund | traditions *= tradition* *not said here* | the highlands |  | the southeast |  | gradually *property* | vn odge-46-1 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme highland=Location |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | participle | traditions *= tradition* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **complete** | to-infinitive · perfect · passive | traditions *= tradition* *not said here* |  |  |  | century |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V S\_ING» |

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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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