---
title: Scholars still debate exactly when Tonga was first settled, but thor… — Tonga · tree and pragmatics
description: Scholars still debate exactly when Tonga was first settled, but thorium dating confirms that settlers had arrived in the earliest known inhabited town, Nukuleka, by 888 BC, ± 8 years. Who acts: Scholars. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Tonga» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Tonga, sentence 23

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From Wikipedia, [«Tonga»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonga), 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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Scholars still debate exactly when Tonga was first settled, but thorium dating confirms that settlers had arrived in the earliest known inhabited town, Nukuleka, by 888 BC, ± 8 years.

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**Who acts:** Scholars · **What happens:** debate, settle, arrive, know, inhabit · **To what, where:** dating confirms, Tonga, earliest known inhabited town

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Tonga». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scholars), 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:Tonga:23
# text = Scholars still debate exactly when Tonga was first settled, but thorium dating confirms that settlers had arrived in the earliest known inhabited town, Nukuleka, by 888 BC, ± 8 years.
1	Scholars	scholar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	still	still	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	debate	debate	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
6	Tonga	Tonga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
8	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	9	advmod	_	_
9	settled	settle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	thorium	thorium	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	dating	dating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	confirms	confirm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	settlers	settler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
21	earliest	early	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	amod	_	_
22	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
23	inhabited	inhabit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	Nukuleka	Nukuleka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	888	888	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	18	obl	_	_
30	BC	BC	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	±	±	SYM	SYM	_	33	case	_	_
33	8	8	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	34	nummod	_	_
34	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **debate** | present | Scholars | dating confirms |  |  | still; year |  | vn chit\_chat-37.6-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **settle** | past · passive |  | Tonga |  |  |  | exactly, first *property* | vn odge-46-1 «NP V ADV»: subject=Location |
| 3 | **arrive** | past · perfect · passive |  | dating confirms |  | the earliest known inhabited town |  | by 888  BC; settlers *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **inhabit** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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, «Tonga», 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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