---
title: According to Gordon P. Means, professor emeritus of political scienc… — Singapore · tree and pragmatics
description: According to Gordon P. Means, professor emeritus of political science at McMaster University, Singapore reinvented the "benevolent" yet "highly authoritarian" colonial system of governance inherited from Britain rather than forging a full democracy. Who acts: Singapore. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Si
---

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# Singapore, sentence 227

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From Wikipedia, [«Singapore»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore), 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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According to Gordon P. Means, professor emeritus of political science at McMaster University, Singapore reinvented the "benevolent" yet "highly authoritarian" colonial system of governance inherited from Britain rather than forging a full democracy.

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**Who acts:** Singapore · **What happens:** accord, reinvent, inherit, forge · **To what, where:** colonial system, Britain, full democracy

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Singapore». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Singapore), 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:Singapore:227
# text = According to Gordon P. Means, professor emeritus of political science at McMaster University, Singapore reinvented the "benevolent" yet "highly authoritarian" colonial system of governance inherited from Britain rather than forging a full democracy.
1	According	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	case	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	Gordon	Gordon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
4	P.	P.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	flat	_	_
5	Means	Mean	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	professor	professor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	emeritus	emeritus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	political	political	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	science	science	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	McMaster	McMaster	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	University	University	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
16	Singapore	Singapore	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	reinvented	reinvent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	benevolent	benevolent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
22	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	highly	highly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	authoritarian	authoritarian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	_
27	colonial	colonial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	system	system	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	governance	governance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	inherited	inherit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
32	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	Britain	Britain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
34	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	36	cc	_	_
35	than	than	ADP	IN	_	34	fixed	_	_
36	forging	forge	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	conj	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	democracy	democracy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **reinvent** | past | Singapore |  |  |  |  | accord Gordon Means and professor emeritus of political science at McMaster University; benevolent *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **inherit** | participle |  | colonial system of governance *not said here* |  | Britain |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from britain=Source |
| 4 | **forge** | gerund |  | a full democracy |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent democracy=Product |

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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, «Singapore», 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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