---
title: The first recorded sighting of Nanumea by Europeans was by Spanish n… — Tuvalu · tree and pragmatics
description: The first recorded sighting of Nanumea by Europeans was by Spanish naval officer Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa who sailed past it on 5 May 1781 as captain of the frigate La Princesa, when attempting a southern crossing of the Pacific from the Philippines to New Spain. Who acts: first recorded sightin
---

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# Tuvalu, sentence 36

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From Wikipedia, [«Tuvalu»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu), 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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The first recorded sighting of Nanumea by Europeans was by Spanish naval officer Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa who sailed past it on 5 May 1781 as captain of the frigate La Princesa, when attempting a southern crossing of the Pacific from the Philippines to New Spain.

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**Who acts:** first recorded sighting, Spanish naval officer · **What happens:** record, be, sail, attempt, sight, cross · **To what, where:** 5, southern crossing, Philippines, Nanumea, Pacific

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Tuvalu». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (first recorded sighting, Spanish naval officer), 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:Tuvalu:36
# text = The first recorded sighting of Nanumea by Europeans was by Spanish naval officer Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa who sailed past it on 5 May 1781 as captain of the frigate La Princesa, when attempting a southern crossing of the Pacific from the Philippines to New Spain.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	amod	_	_
3	recorded	record	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	sighting	sighting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Nanumea	Nanumea	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Europeans	European	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	Spanish	Spanish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	naval	naval	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	officer	officer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
14	Francisco	Francisco	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
15	Mourelle	Mourelle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	flat	_	_
16	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	14	flat:foreign	_	_
17	la	la	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	18	compound	_	_
18	Rúa	Rúa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	flat	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	sailed	sail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
21	past	past	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	20	obl	_	_
25	May	May	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod:unmarked	_	_
26	1781	1781	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	24	flat	_	_
27	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	captain	captain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	frigate	frigate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	La	La	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	appos	_	_
33	Princesa	Princesa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	36	advmod	_	_
36	attempting	attempt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	southern	southern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	crossing	crossing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	Pacific	Pacific	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	_
43	from	from	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	Philippines	Philippines	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Ptan	36	obl	_	_
46	to	to	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	New	New	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	Spain	Spain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **record** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the first recorded sighting of Nanumea by Europeans |  |  |  |  | by Spanish naval officer; Francisco *appos* | tree rules |
| 3 | **sail** | past | Spanish naval officer |  |  | 5  May |  | past sighting; as captain of the frigate | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent past it=Trajectory |
| 4 | **attempt** | gerund | Spanish naval officer *not said here* | a southern crossing of the Pacific |  | the Philippines to New Spain |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crossing=Eventuality |
| 5 | **sight** |  |  | Nanumea by Europeans |  |  |  |  | nom sighting «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **cross** |  |  | the Pacific |  |  |  |  | nom crossing «act 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, «Tuvalu», 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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