---
title: Caspar Wessel was the first to describe vectors and complex numbers… — Norway · tree and pragmatics
description: Caspar Wessel was the first to describe vectors and complex numbers in the complex plane, laying the foundation for modern vector and complex analysis. Who acts: Caspar, complex plane. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Norway» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Norway, sentence 428

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From Wikipedia, [«Norway»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway), 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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Caspar Wessel was the first to describe vectors and complex numbers in the complex plane, laying the foundation for modern vector and complex analysis.

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**Who acts:** Caspar, complex plane · **What happens:** be, describe, lay · **To what, where:** vectors, complex plane, foundation

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Norway». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Caspar, complex plane), 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:Norway:428
# text = Caspar Wessel was the first to describe vectors and complex numbers in the complex plane, laying the foundation for modern vector and complex analysis.
1	Caspar	Caspar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	Wessel	Wessel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	describe	describe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
8	vectors	vector	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	complex	complex	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	complex	complex	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	plane	plane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	laying	lay	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	foundation	foundation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	modern	modern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	vector	vector	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	complex	complex	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	analysis	analysis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Caspar |  |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **describe** | to-infinitive |  | vectors and complex numbers |  | the complex plane |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent vector=Theme |
| 3 | **lay** | gerund | the complex plane *not said here* | the foundation |  |  |  | for modern vector and complex analysis | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent foundation=Result for vector=Beneficiary |

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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, «Norway», 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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