---
title: Look at the stripes in a cliff: each stripe is a layer of mud, sand… — How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber a… · tree and pragmatics
description: Look at the stripes in a cliff: each stripe is a layer of mud, sand or ash that settled on top of the one before, like books piled on a desk, so the lowest layers are usually the oldest. Who acts: you, stripe, sand, lowest layers. A sentence of the lesson «How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, am
---

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# How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the long story of life, sentence 0

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Look at the stripes in a cliff: each stripe is a layer of mud, sand or ash that settled on top of the one before, like books piled on a desk, so the lowest layers are usually the oldest.

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**Who acts:** you, stripe, sand, lowest layers · **What happens:** look, be, settle, pile · **To what, where:** layer, books, desk

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This is a sentence of the lesson «How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the long story of life» 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 (you, stripe, sand, lowest layers), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life.lesson:0
# text = Look at the stripes in a cliff: each stripe is a layer of mud, sand or ash that settled on top of the one before, like books piled on a desk, so the lowest layers are usually the oldest.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life.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): R5-strong ×2
1	Look	look	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	stripes	stripe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=1:obl
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	stripe	stripe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	layer	layer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	parataxis	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=13:appos
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	ash	ash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	settled	settle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	before	before	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	like	like	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
31	piled	pile	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	acl	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	desk	desk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
36	so	so	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	lowest	low	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	39	amod	_	_
39	layers	layer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nsubj	_	_
40	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
41	usually	usually	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	1	parataxis	_	_
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the stripes in a cliff | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at stripe=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | present | each stripe | a layer |  |  |  | of mud and sand or ash | tree rules |
| 3 | **settle** | past | sand or ash |  |  |  |  | like books; on top of the one; before *property* | vn correspond-36.1 «NP V PP.theme S»: agent=Agent on top=Topic |
| 4 | **pile** | participle |  | books *not said here* |  | a desk |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme on desk=Destination |
| 5 | **is** | present | the lowest layers |  |  |  |  | old, usually *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.

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**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:276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life.lesson:0`.

**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): R5-strong ×2. **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/).

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- ← previous: [Fossils: how a living thing turns to s…, 18](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/18/)
- next →: [How old is it? Rock layers, rock clock…, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life/1/)
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