---
title: Some rocks, especially volcanic ash, contain atoms that change into… — How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber a… · tree and pragmatics
description: Some rocks, especially volcanic ash, contain atoms that change into other atoms at a steady rate; measuring how much has changed dates the rock, and ash layers above and below a fossil give its age. Who acts: rocks, atoms, measuring, ash layers. A sentence of the lesson «How old is it? Rock layers, 
---

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# How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the long story of life, sentence 5

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Some rocks, especially volcanic ash, contain atoms that change into other atoms at a steady rate; measuring how much has changed dates the rock, and ash layers above and below a fossil give its age.

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**Who acts:** rocks, atoms, measuring, ash layers · **What happens:** contain, change, measure, date, give · **To what, where:** atoms, other atoms, rock, age

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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 (rocks, atoms, measuring, ash 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:5
# text = Some rocks, especially volcanic ash, contain atoms that change into other atoms at a steady rate; measuring how much has changed dates the rock, and ash layers above and below a fossil give its age.
# 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 ×2, R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	det	_	_
2	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	volcanic	volcanic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=6:compound|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing
6	ash	ash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=2:conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	contain	contain	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=0:root|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin
9	atoms	atom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	change	change	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	atoms	atom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	steady	steady	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	rate	rate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	measuring	measure	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	csubj	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
22	much	much	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
23	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	changed	change	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	ccomp	_	_
25	dates	date	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	ash	ash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	layers	layer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj	_	_
32	above	above	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
34	below	below	ADP	IN	_	32	conj	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=36:advmod|HaikuPos=ADV:RB:_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	fossil	fossil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
38	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **contain** | present | some rocks | atoms |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot atom=Theme |
| 2 | **change** | present | atoms |  |  |  |  | into other atoms *result*; at a steady rate | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: agent=Patient into atom=Result |
| 3 | **measure** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **change** | present · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **date** | present | measuring | the rock |  |  |  |  | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rock=Co-Agent |
| 6 | **give** | infinitive | ash layers | fossil's age |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent age=Theme |

<!-- .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:5`.

**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 ×2, R8-pos-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/).

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