---
title: British troops fought in the war in Afghanistan, but controversy sur… — United Kingdom · tree and pragmatics
description: British troops fought in the war in Afghanistan, but controversy surrounded Britain's military deployment in Iraq, which saw the largest protest in British history in opposition to the government led by Tony Blair. Who acts: British troops, military deployment, Britain. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Un
---

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# United Kingdom, sentence 145

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From Wikipedia, [«United Kingdom»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom), 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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British troops fought in the war in Afghanistan, but controversy surrounded Britain's military deployment in Iraq, which saw the largest protest in British history in opposition to the government led by Tony Blair.

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**Who acts:** British troops, military deployment, Britain · **What happens:** fight, surround, see, lead, deploy · **To what, where:** war, controversy, largest protest, British history, government, Iraq

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «United Kingdom». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (British troops, military deployment, Britain), 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:United_Kingdom:145
# text = British troops fought in the war in Afghanistan, but controversy surrounded Britain's military deployment in Iraq, which saw the largest protest in British history in opposition to the government led by Tony Blair.
1	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	troops	troops	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	3	nsubj	_	_
3	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Afghanistan	Afghanistan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	controversy	controversy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	surrounded	surround	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
13	Britain	Britain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	's	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	military	military	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	deployment	deployment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:agent	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Iraq	Iraq	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	largest	large	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	amod	_	_
24	protest	protest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	opposition	opposition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
33	led	lead	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	acl	_	_
34	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	Tony	Tony	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	obl:agent	_	_
36	Blair	Blair	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | past | British troops |  |  | the war |  | in Afghanistan | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **surround** | participle · passive | Britain's military deployment in Iraq | controversy |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | Britain's military deployment in Iraq | the largest protest |  | British history in opposition |  | to the government | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer protest=Stimulus |
| 4 | **lead** | participle |  | the government *not said here* |  |  |  | Tony *obl:agent* | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition |
| 5 | **deploy** |  | Britain |  |  | Iraq |  |  | nom deployment «act transitive»: poss=agent in=place |

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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, «United Kingdom», 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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