---
title: The hills were formed over two billion years ago with granite being… — Zimbabwe · tree and pragmatics
description: The hills were formed over two billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, then being eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Zimbabwe» with its dependency tree and pr
---

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# Zimbabwe, sentence 388

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From Wikipedia, [«Zimbabwe»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe), 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 hills were formed over two billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, then being eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation.

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**What happens:** form, force, erode, produce, break, intersperse · **To what, where:** hills, smooth

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Zimbabwe». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:Zimbabwe:388
# text = The hills were formed over two billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, then being eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	formed	form	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	over	over	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	compound	_	_
7	billion	billion	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	granite	granite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
12	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
19	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	eroded	erode	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	produce	produce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obj	_	_
24	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	whaleback	whaleback	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	dwalas	dwala	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	amod	_	_
30	kopjes	kopje	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	strewn	strewn	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	parataxis	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	boulders	boulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	interspersed	intersperse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	conj	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	thickets	thicket	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	vegetation	vegetation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **form** | past · passive |  | the hills |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **force** | gerund · passive |  |  |  |  |  | with granite; to the surface | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP» |
| 3 | **erode** | gerund · passive |  |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **produce** | to-infinitive |  | smooth |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent smooth=Result |
| 5 | **break** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **intersperse** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | with thickets of vegetation | vn amalgamate-22.2-2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Patient with thicket=Co-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, «Zimbabwe», 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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