---
title: Real life: why is an alphabet so powerful? — Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was… · tree and pragmatics
description: Real life: why is an alphabet so powerful? Test 7 · ★★ of lesson 88 «Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choic
---

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# Test 7 · ★★ · Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Real life: why is an alphabet so powerful?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** alphabet · **What happens:** be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 7 · ★★ of lesson 88 «Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/#t7).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t7:1
# text = Real life: why is an alphabet so powerful?
1	Real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
4	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | a alphabet |  |  |  |  | powerful *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A few sound-signs can write any word at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t7:o1:1
# text = A few sound-signs can write any word at all
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
3	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
9	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | can | a few sound signs | any word |  | all |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Words are easy to carve in stone

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t7:o2:1
# text = Words are easy to carve in stone
1	Words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	carve	carve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Words |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **carve** | to-infinitive | Words *not said here* |  |  | stone |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in stone=Destination |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A few sound-signs can write any word at all, so nobody needs to learn thousands of pictures

<!-- fold The tree, 18 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t7:o3:1
# text = A few sound-signs can write any word at all, so nobody needs to learn thousands of pictures
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
3	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
9	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	15	nsubj	_	_
15	needs	need	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	pictures	picture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | can | a few sound signs | any word |  | all |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 2 | **need** | present | nobody |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **learn** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | nobody *not said here* | thousands of pictures |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thousand=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Each word needs its own sign always

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t7:o4:1
# text = Each word needs its own sign always
1	Each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	needs	need	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **need** | present | each word | word's own sign |  |  |  | always *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot sign=Theme |
| 2 | **sign** |  | word |  |  |  |  |  | nom sign «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was…, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/t6/)
- next →: [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/t8/)
- ↑ back to [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/)