--- title: About 250 million years ago the continents were joined in one land c… — How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber a… · tree and pragmatics description: About 250 million years ago the continents were joined in one land called Pangaea, which is why the same fossils are found in Africa and South America; continents drift a few centimetres a year, about as fast as fingernails grow. Who acts: continents, fingernails. A sentence of the lesson «How old i --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life/16/) [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/) / [How old is it? Rock layers, rock clock…](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/) / 16 # How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the long story of life, sentence 16 About 250 million years ago the continents were joined in one land called Pangaea, which is why the same fossils are found in Africa and South America; continents drift a few centimetres a year, about as fast as fingernails grow. **Who acts:** continents, fingernails · **What happens:** join, call, be, find, drift, grow · **To what, where:** continents, one land, same fossils, Africa, few centimetres · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (continents, fingernails), 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:16 # text = About 250 million years ago the continents were joined in one land called Pangaea, which is why the same fossils are found in Africa and South America; continents drift a few centimetres a year, about as fast as fingernails grow. # 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 ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 About about ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=2:advmod 2 250 250 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 3 compound _ _ 3 million million NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 4 nummod _ _ 4 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 obl:unmarked _ _ 5 ago ago ADV RB _ 9 advmod _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 continents continent NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 nsubj:pass _ _ 8 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 aux:pass _ _ 9 joined join VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 10 in in ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 12 nummod _ _ 12 land land NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ _ 13 called call VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 12 acl _ _ 14 Pangaea Pangaea PROPN NNP Number=Sing 13 xcomp _ _ 15 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 16 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 18 nsubj _ _ 17 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 18 cop _ _ 18 why why ADV WRB PronType=Int 23 advmod _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 20 same same ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 fossils fossil NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 nsubj:pass _ _ 22 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 23 aux:pass _ _ 23 found find VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 9 parataxis _ _ 24 in in ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 25 Africa Africa PROPN NNP Number=Sing 23 obl _ _ 26 and and CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 27 South South PROPN NNP Number=Sing 25 conj _ _ 28 America America PROPN NNP Number=Sing 27 flat _ _ 29 ; ; PUNCT : _ 31 punct _ _ 30 continents continent NOUN NNS Number=Plur 31 nsubj _ _ 31 drift drift VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 parataxis _ _ 32 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 33 few few ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 34 amod _ _ 34 centimetres centimetre NOUN NNS Number=Plur 31 nmod _ _ 35 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 year year NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 nmod:unmarked _ _ 37 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 38 about about ADV RB _ 40 advmod _ _ 39 as as ADV RB _ 40 advmod _ _ 40 fast fast ADV RB Degree=Pos 31 advmod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=31:parataxis|HaikuPos=ADJ:JJ:Degree=Pos 41 as as SCONJ IN _ 43 mark _ _ 42 fingernails fingernail NOUN NNS Number=Plur 43 nsubj _ _ 43 grow grow VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 40 advcl _ _ 44 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **join** | past · passive | | the continents | | one land | | ago *property* | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | | 2 | **call** | participle | | one land *not said here* | | | | | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **is** | present | | | | | | why *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **find** | present · passive | | the same fossils | | Africa and South | | | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic | | 5 | **drift** | present | continents | a few centimetres a year | | | | fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 6 | **grow** | present | fingernails | | | | | | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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:276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life.lesson:16`. **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 ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1. **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: [How old is it? Rock layers, rock clock…, 15](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/15/) - next →: [DNA simply: the recipe in every cell, 0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/0/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](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/)