--- title: Scientists who study fossils are called palaeontologists, and they d… — Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and h… · tree and pragmatics description: Scientists who study fossils are called palaeontologists, and they dig very slowly with brushes and small picks, because a careless hit can destroy a find that waited millions of years. Who acts: Scientists, careless hit, find. A sentence of the lesson «Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up/4/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / [Fossils: how a living thing turns to s…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up/) / 4 # Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and how we dig it up, sentence 4 Scientists who study fossils are called palaeontologists, and they dig very slowly with brushes and small picks, because a careless hit can destroy a find that waited millions of years. **Who acts:** Scientists, careless hit, find · **What happens:** study, call, dig, destroy, wait · **To what, where:** fossils, Scientists, find, millions · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and how we dig it up» of the biology course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scientists, careless hit, find), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up.lesson:4 # text = Scientists who study fossils are called palaeontologists, and they dig very slowly with brushes and small picks, because a careless hit can destroy a find that waited millions of years. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up.lesson # annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): no change 1 Scientists scientist NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 nsubj _ _ 2 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 3 nsubj _ _ 3 study study VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 1 acl:relcl _ _ 4 fossils fossil NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 obj _ _ 5 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 aux:pass _ _ 6 called call VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 7 palaeontologists palaeontologist NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 xcomp _ _ 8 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 11 cc _ _ 10 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 11 nsubj _ _ 11 dig dig VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 12 very very ADV RB _ 13 advmod _ _ 13 slowly slowly ADV RB _ 11 advmod _ _ 14 with with ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 15 brushes brush NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 obl _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 17 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 amod _ _ 18 picks pick NOUN NNS Number=Plur 15 conj _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 20 because because SCONJ IN _ 25 mark _ _ 21 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 22 careless careless ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 23 amod _ _ 23 hit hit NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 nsubj _ _ 24 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 25 aux _ _ 25 destroy destroy VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 11 advcl _ _ 26 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 find find NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obj _ _ 28 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 29 nsubj _ _ 29 waited wait VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 27 acl:relcl _ _ 30 millions million NOUN NNS Number=Plur 29 obj _ _ 31 of of ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 32 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 nmod _ _ 33 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **study** | present | Scientists | fossils | | | | | vn learn-14-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fossil=Topic | | 2 | **call** | present · passive | | Scientists | | | | | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient | | 3 | **dig** | present | Scientists *= scientist* | | | | | with brushes and small picks; slowly *property* | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with brush=Instrument | | 4 | **destroy** | can | a careless hit | a find | | | | | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent find=Patient | | 5 | **wait** | past | a find | millions of years | | | | | tree rules | 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. **Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:biology:275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up.lesson:4`. **The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): no change. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence. See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Fossils: how a living thing turns to s…, 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up/3/) - next →: [Fossils: how a living thing turns to s…, 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up/5/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up/)