---
title: A thin tube joins each middle ear to the back of the throat to let a… — Eyes and ears deeper: glasses, colour blindness,… · tree and pragmatics
description: A thin tube joins each middle ear to the back of the throat to let air in and out; on a plane, swallowing, yawning or chewing opens it, and a cold can block it and make ear pain worse. Who acts: thin tube, swallowing, cold. A sentence of the lesson «Eyes and ears deeper: glasses, colour blindness, t
---

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# Eyes and ears deeper: glasses, colour blindness, tears, earwax and dizziness, sentence 16

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A thin tube joins each middle ear to the back of the throat to let air in and out; on a plane, swallowing, yawning or chewing opens it, and a cold can block it and make ear pain worse.

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**Who acts:** thin tube, swallowing, cold · **What happens:** join, let, swallow, yawn, chew, open · **To what, where:** middle ear, air, plane, ear pain

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Eyes and ears deeper: glasses, colour blindness, tears, earwax and dizziness» 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 (thin tube, swallowing, cold), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:362-eyes-and-ears-deeper-glasses-colour-blindness-tears-earwax-and-dizziness.lesson:16
# text = A thin tube joins each middle ear to the back of the throat to let air in and out; on a plane, swallowing, yawning or chewing opens it, and a cold can block it and make ear pain worse.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 362-eyes-and-ears-deeper-glasses-colour-blindness-tears-earwax-and-dizziness.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): R6-punct-agree ×1
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	tube	tube	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	joins	join	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
6	middle	middle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
16	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	in	in	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	out	out	ADV	RB	_	17	conj	_	_
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	plane	plane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	swallowing	swallow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	csubj	_	_
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	yawning	yawn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	conj	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	chewing	chew	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	conj	_	_
30	opens	open	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	cold	cold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
36	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	block	block	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	conj	_	_
41	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	compound	_	_
42	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	_
43	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	40	xcomp	_	_
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=37:punct
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .note -->
No stored speech act for this sentence.

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **join** | present | a thin tube | each middle ear |  |  |  | to the back of the throat | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent ear=Patient to back=Co-Patient |
| 2 | **let** | to-infinitive | a thin tube *not said here* | air |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=Theme |
| 3 | **swallow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **yawn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **chew** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **open** | present | swallowing | air |  | a plane |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent it=Theme on plane=Location |
| 7 | **block** | can | a cold | air |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer it=Theme |
| 8 | **make** | infinitive | a cold *not said here* | ear pain |  |  |  | bad *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset pain=Product |

<!-- .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:362-eyes-and-ears-deeper-glasses-colour-blindness-tears-earwax-and-dizziness.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): R6-punct-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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