---
title: South Africa has 12 official languages: Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Engl… — South Africa · tree and pragmatics
description: South Africa has 12 official languages: Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, English, Pedi, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda, and Southern Ndebele (in order of first language speakers), as well as South African Sign Language, which was recognised as an official language in 2023. Who acts: South Afric
---

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# South Africa, sentence 422

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From Wikipedia, [«South Africa»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa), 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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South Africa has 12 official languages: Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, English, Pedi, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda, and Southern Ndebele (in order of first language speakers), as well as South African Sign Language, which was recognised as an official language in 2023.

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**Who acts:** South Africa · **What happens:** have, recognise, order · **To what, where:** 12 official languages, Afrikaans, first language speakers

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «South Africa». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (South Africa), 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:South_Africa:422
# text = South Africa has 12 official languages: Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, English, Pedi, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda, and Southern Ndebele (in order of first language speakers), as well as South African Sign Language, which was recognised as an official language in 2023.
1	South	South	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	Africa	Africa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	12	12	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
5	official	official	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	languages	language	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Afrikaans	Afrikaans	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	Zulu	Zulu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	Xhosa	Xhosa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	Pedi	Pedi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	Tswana	Tswana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	Southern	Southern	PROPN	NNP	_	21	flat	_	_
21	Sotho	Sotho	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	Tsonga	Tsonga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	Swazi	Swazi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	Venda	Venda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	Southern	southern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	Ndebele	ndebele	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
32	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	appos	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	38	amod	_	_
37	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	speakers	speaker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
41	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	47	cc	_	_
42	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	41	fixed	_	_
43	as	as	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
44	South	South	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	47	compound	_	_
45	African	African	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
46	Sign	Sign	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	47	compound	_	_
47	Language	Language	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
49	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	51	nsubj:pass	_	_
50	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	51	aux:pass	_	_
51	recognised	recognise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
52	as	as	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
54	official	official	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	_
56	in	in	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
57	2023	2023	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	55	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | South Africa | 12 official languages |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent language=Patient |
| 2 | **recognise** | past · passive |  | Afrikaans and Zulu and Xhosa and English and Pedi and Tswana and Southern Sotho and Tsonga and Swazi and Venda as South African Sign Language |  |  |  | as a official language in 2023 | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus as language=Attribute |
| 3 | **order** |  |  | first language speakers |  |  |  |  | nom order «communication transitive»: 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, «South Africa», 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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