---
title: In Federalist No. 43, published on January 23, 1788, James Madison a… — Washington, D.C. · tree and pragmatics
description: In Federalist No. 43, published on January 23, 1788, James Madison argued that the new federal government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance and safety. Who acts: James, new federal government, capital. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Washington, D.C.» with it
---

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# Washington, D.C., sentence 32

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From Wikipedia, [«Washington, D.C.»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.), 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 Federalist No. 43, published on January 23, 1788, James Madison argued that the new federal government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance and safety.

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**Who acts:** James, new federal government, capital · **What happens:** publish, argue, need, provide, maintain · **To what, where:** Federalist, 23, authority, national capital · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Washington, D.C.». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (James, new federal government, capital), 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:Washington,_D.C.:32
# text = In Federalist No. 43, published on January 23, 1788, James Madison argued that the new federal government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance and safety.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	Federalist	Federalist	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
3	No.	No.	PROPN	NNP	Abbr=Yes|Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	43	43	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	published	publish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	January	January	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod:unmarked	_	_
9	23	23	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	1788	1788	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
13	James	James	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	Madison	Madison	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	flat	_	_
15	argued	argue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	federal	federal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	need	need	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
23	authority	authority	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
24	over	over	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	national	national	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	provide	provide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
32	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	maintenance	maintenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **publish** | participle |  | Federalist *not said here* |  | 23  January |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | past | James |  |  | Federalist |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **need** | would | the new federal government | authority |  | a national capital |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot authority=Theme |
| 4 | **provide** | to-infinitive | the new federal government *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for capital's own maintenance and safety | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-2 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent for maintenance=Recipient |
| 5 | **maintain** |  | capital |  |  |  |  |  | nom maintenance «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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, «Washington, D.C.», 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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