---
title: A referendum on joining the European Union was held on 8 March 2003,… — Malta · tree and pragmatics
description: A referendum on joining the European Union was held on 8 March 2003, with 53.65% in favour. Who acts: referendum. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Malta» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Malta, sentence 127

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From Wikipedia, [«Malta»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta), 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 referendum on joining the European Union was held on 8 March 2003, with 53.65% in favour.

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**Who acts:** referendum · **What happens:** join, hold · **To what, where:** European Union, referendum

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Malta». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (referendum), 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:Malta:127
# text = A referendum on joining the European Union was held on 8 March 2003, with 53.65% in favour.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	referendum	referendum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	joining	join	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	European	European	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Union	Union	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	8	8	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	March	March	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	2003	2003	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	12	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	53.65	53.65	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	%	%	SYM	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	favour	favour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **join** | gerund | a referendum *not said here* | the European Union |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent union=Patient |
| 2 | **hold** | past · passive |  | a referendum |  |  | march |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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, «Malta», 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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