--- title: Taffy tries to tell him to go and fetch the spear; he hands her a pi… — Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Writte… · tree and pragmatics description: Taffy tries to tell him to go and fetch the spear; he hands her a piece of birch-bark to show he means no harm, and she thinks he wants her Mummy's address. Who acts: Taffy, Daddy, Mummy. A sentence of the lesson «Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1: a broken spear and a pictur --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/84-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear/8/) [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/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / [Just So Stories, How the First Letter…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/84-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear/) / 8 # Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1: a broken spear and a picture on birch-bark, sentence 8 Taffy tries to tell him to go and fetch the spear; he hands her a piece of birch-bark to show he means no harm, and she thinks he wants her Mummy's address. **Who acts:** Taffy, Daddy, Mummy · **What happens:** try, tell, go, fetch, hand, show · **To what, where:** Taffy, spear, piece, Daddy, harm, address · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1: a broken spear and a picture on birch-bark» of the books 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 (Taffy, Daddy, Mummy), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:books:084-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear.lesson:8 # text = Taffy tries to tell him to go and fetch the spear; he hands her a piece of birch-bark to show he means no harm, and she thinks he wants her Mummy's address. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = books # lesson = 084-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear.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, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 Taffy Taffy PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 2 tries try VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 to to PART TO _ 4 mark _ _ 4 tell tell VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 2 xcomp _ _ 5 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 iobj _ _ 6 to to PART TO _ 7 mark _ _ 7 go go VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 4 xcomp _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 9 fetch fetch VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 7 conj _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 spear spear NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ _ 12 ; ; PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 13 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 nsubj _ _ 14 hands hand VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=2:conj 15 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 iobj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=17:nmod:poss|HaikuPos=PRON:PRP$:Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 piece piece NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obj _ _ 18 of of ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 19 birch birch NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 compound _ _ 20 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 19 punct _ _ 21 bark bark NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 nmod _ _ 22 to to PART TO _ 23 mark _ _ 23 show show VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 14 advcl _ _ 24 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 25 means mean VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 23 ccomp _ _ 26 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 27 det _ _ 27 harm harm NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obj _ _ 28 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 29 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 30 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 31 thinks think VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 32 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 33 wants want VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 31 ccomp _ _ 34 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 35 nmod:poss _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=37:nmod:poss 35 Mummy Mummy PROPN NNP Number=Sing 37 nmod:poss _ _ 36 's 's PART POS _ 35 case _ _ 37 address address NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obj _ _ 38 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: narrate - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **try** | present | Taffy | | | | | | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Taffy *not said here* | | Taffy | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | | 3 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Taffy *not said here* | | | | | | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **fetch** | infinitive | Taffy *not said here* | the spear | | | | | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spear=Theme | | 5 | **hand** | present | Taffy | a piece of birch bark | Daddy | | | | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Destination piece=Theme | | 6 | **show** | to-infinitive | Taffy *not said here* | | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 7 | **mean** | present | Taffy | no harm | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harm=Topic | | 8 | **think** *speech: other* | present | Daddy | | | | | | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 9 | **want** | present | Taffy | Daddy's Mummy's address | | | | | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot address=Theme | | 10 | **address** | | Daddy's Mummy | | | | | | nom address «communication transitive»: poss=agent | 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:books:084-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear.lesson:8`. **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, 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: [Just So Stories, How the First Letter…, 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/84-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear/7/) - next →: [Just So Stories, How the First Letter…, 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/84-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear/9/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/84-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear/)