---
title: In December 1942, the British envoy to the Holy See suggested that R… — Vatican City · tree and pragmatics
description: In December 1942, the British envoy to the Holy See suggested that Rome be declared an open city, a suggestion that the Holy See took more seriously than was probably meant by the envoy, who did not want Rome to be an open city. Who acts: British envoy, Holy See, envoy, Rome. A sentence of Wikipedia
---

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# Vatican City, sentence 71

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From Wikipedia, [«Vatican City»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City), 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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In December 1942, the British envoy to the Holy See suggested that Rome be declared an open city, a suggestion that the Holy See took more seriously than was probably meant by the envoy, who did not want Rome to be an open city.

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**Who acts:** British envoy, Holy See, envoy, Rome · **What happens:** suggest, declare, take, mean, not want, be · **To what, where:** suggestion, Rome, open city · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Vatican City». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (British envoy, Holy See, envoy, Rome), 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:Vatican_City:71
# text = In December 1942, the British envoy to the Holy See suggested that Rome be declared an open city, a suggestion that the Holy See took more seriously than was probably meant by the envoy, who did not want Rome to be an open city.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	December	December	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
3	1942	1942	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	envoy	envoy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	Holy	Holy	PROPN	NNP	_	11	compound	_	_
11	See	See	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
12	suggested	suggest	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	Rome	Rome	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	declared	declare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	ccomp	_	_
17	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	suggestion	suggestion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	Holy	Holy	PROPN	NNP	_	26	compound	_	_
26	See	See	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl	_	_
28	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	29	advmod	_	_
29	seriously	seriously	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
30	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
32	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	meant	mean	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	advcl	_	_
34	by	by	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	envoy	envoy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	41	nsubj	_	_
39	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
40	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	41	advmod	_	_
41	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	acl:relcl	_	_
42	Rome	Rome	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
44	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	cop	_	_
45	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
46	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **suggest** *speech: suggest* | past | the British envoy to the Holy See | a suggestion |  |  | december |  | vn say-37.7-1-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **declare** *speech: other* | infinitive · passive |  | Rome |  |  |  | a open city *obj* | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme city=Attribute |
| 3 | **take** | past | the Holy See | a suggestion *not said here* |  |  |  | seriously *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent suggestion=Theme |
| 4 | **mean** | past · passive | the envoy |  |  |  |  | probably *property* | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **want** | past · do-support | the envoy | Rome |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot rome=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Rome *not said here* | a open city |  |  |  |  | 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, «Vatican City», 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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