---
title: Free Burghers who became independent farmers on the frontier were kn… — South Africa · tree and pragmatics
description: Free Burghers who became independent farmers on the frontier were known as Boers, with some (the trekboers) adopting semi-nomadic lifestyles. Who acts: Free Burghers, trekboers. A sentence of Wikipedia's «South Africa» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# South Africa, sentence 80

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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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Free Burghers who became independent farmers on the frontier were known as Boers, with some (the trekboers) adopting semi-nomadic lifestyles.

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**Who acts:** Free Burghers, trekboers · **What happens:** become, know, adopt · **To what, where:** independent farmers, frontier, Free Burghers, semi-nomadic lifestyles

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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 (Free Burghers, trekboers), 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:80
# text = Free Burghers who became independent farmers on the frontier were known as Boers, with some (the trekboers) adopting semi-nomadic lifestyles.
1	Free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	Burghers	burgher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	independent	independent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	farmers	farmer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	xcomp	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	frontier	frontier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Boers	boer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
17	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	trekboers	trekboer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	19	punct	_	_
21	adopting	adopt	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
22	semi-nomadic	semi-nomadic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	lifestyles	lifestyle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | Free Burghers | independent farmers |  | the frontier |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **know** | past · passive |  | Free Burghers |  |  |  | as Boers; some trekboers *parataxis* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus as boer=Attribute |
| 3 | **adopt** | gerund | some trekboers *not said here* | semi-nomadic lifestyles |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lifestyle=Theme |

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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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