---
title: At the time, it was the most expensive election ever to be held on t… — Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: At the time, it was the most expensive election ever to be held on the African continent (being surpassed only by the elections of 2019 and 2023). Who acts: tenure, elections. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Nigeria» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Nigeria, sentence 212

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From Wikipedia, [«Nigeria»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria), 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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At the time, it was the most expensive election ever to be held on the African continent (being surpassed only by the elections of 2019 and 2023).

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**Who acts:** tenure, elections · **What happens:** be, hold, surpass · **To what, where:** expensive election, African continent

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Nigeria». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tenure, elections), 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:Nigeria:212
# text = At the time, it was the most expensive election ever to be held on the African continent (being surpassed only by the elections of 2019 and 2023).
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	9	advmod	_	_
9	expensive	expensive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	election	election	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	14	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl:relcl	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	African	African	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	continent	continent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	surpassed	surpass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
22	only	only	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	elections	election	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	2019	2019	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	25	nmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	2023	2023	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | tenure | the expensive election |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hold** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  | the African continent | ever |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: on continent=Location |
| 3 | **surpass** | gerund · passive | the elections of 2019 | the African continent *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |

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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, «Nigeria», 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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