---
title: The dispute became a diplomatic crisis when Venezuela's lobbyist, Wi… — Venezuela · tree and pragmatics
description: The dispute became a diplomatic crisis when Venezuela's lobbyist, William L. Scruggs, sought to argue that British behavior over the issue violated the United States' Monroe Doctrine of 1823, and used his influence in Washington, D.C., to pursue the matter. Who acts: dispute, lobbyist, British behav
---

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# Venezuela, sentence 94

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From Wikipedia, [«Venezuela»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela), 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 dispute became a diplomatic crisis when Venezuela's lobbyist, William L. Scruggs, sought to argue that British behavior over the issue violated the United States' Monroe Doctrine of 1823, and used his influence in Washington, D.C., to pursue the matter.

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**Who acts:** dispute, lobbyist, British behavior · **What happens:** become, seek, argue, violate, use, pursue · **To what, where:** diplomatic crisis, States Monroe Doctrine, influence, Washington, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Venezuela». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dispute, lobbyist, British behavior), 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:Venezuela:94
# text = The dispute became a diplomatic crisis when Venezuela's lobbyist, William L. Scruggs, sought to argue that British behavior over the issue violated the United States' Monroe Doctrine of 1823, and used his influence in Washington, D.C., to pursue the matter.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dispute	dispute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	diplomatic	diplomatic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	crisis	crisis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
8	Venezuela	Venezuela	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	lobbyist	lobbyist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	William	William	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	_
13	L.	L.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	flat	_	_
14	Scruggs	Scruggs	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
16	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	argue	argue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
20	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	behavior	behavior	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
22	over	over	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	issue	issue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	violated	violate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	United	United	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	States	State	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	31	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	'	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	Monroe	Monroe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	Doctrine	Doctrine	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	1823	1823	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	influence	influence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	Washington	Washington	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
42	D.C.	D.C.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	pursue	pursue	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	36	parataxis	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | the dispute | a diplomatic crisis |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **seek** | past | Venezuela's lobbyist |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **argue** *speech: disagree* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Venezuela's lobbyist *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **violate** | past | British behavior over the issue | States Monroe Doctrine of 1823 |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **use** | past | the dispute *not said here* | dispute's influence |  | Washington  D.C. |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent influence=Patient |
| 6 | **pursue** | to-infinitive |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent matter=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, «Venezuela», 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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