---
title: In 1959, Harold Macmillan had made his famous "Wind of Change Speech… — Mauritius · tree and pragmatics
description: In 1959, Harold Macmillan had made his famous "Wind of Change Speech" in which he acknowledged that the best option for Britain was to give complete independence to its colonies. Who acts: Harold, best option. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Mauritius» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Mauritius, sentence 178

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From Wikipedia, [«Mauritius»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius), 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 1959, Harold Macmillan had made his famous "Wind of Change Speech" in which he acknowledged that the best option for Britain was to give complete independence to its colonies.

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**Who acts:** Harold, best option · **What happens:** make, acknowledge, give, wind · **To what, where:** famous Wind, 1959, complete independence, colonies, Change Speech

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Mauritius». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Harold, best option), 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:Mauritius:178
# text = In 1959, Harold Macmillan had made his famous "Wind of Change Speech" in which he acknowledged that the best option for Britain was to give complete independence to its colonies.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	1959	1959	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	Harold	Harold	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	Macmillan	Macmillan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	flat	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
9	famous	famous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	Change	Change	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	Speech	Speech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	acknowledged	acknowledge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	23	amod	_	_
23	option	option	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Britain	Britain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
29	complete	complete	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	independence	independence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	colonies	colony	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past · perfect | Harold | Harold's famous Wind of Change Speech |  | 1959 |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wind=Product |
| 2 | **acknowledge** | past | Harold |  |  | Harold's famous Wind of Change Speech |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **give** | past | the best option for Britain | complete independence | option's colonies |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent independence=Theme to colony=Recipient |
| 4 | **wind** *in a quote* |  | Harold | Change Speech |  |  |  |  | nom wind «phenomenon transitive»: poss=agent 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, «Mauritius», 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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