---
title: In Mandarin the tune of a syllable is part of the word, like a vowel… — The four tones: same sound, different meaning · tree and pragmatics
description: In Mandarin the tune of a syllable is part of the word, like a vowel: change the tune and you change the word. Who acts: tune, you. A sentence of the lesson «The four tones: same sound, different meaning» of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The four tones: same sound, different meaning, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In Mandarin the tune of a syllable is part of the word, like a vowel: change the tune and you change the word.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tune, you · **What happens:** be, change · **To what, where:** part, Mandarin, tune, word

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «The four tones: same sound, different meaning» of the chinese street 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 (tune, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:chinese-street:002-the-four-tones.lesson:1
# text = In Mandarin the tune of a syllable is part of the word, like a vowel: change the tune and you change the word.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = chinese-street
# lesson = 002-the-four-tones.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): no change
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	Mandarin	Mandarin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	syllable	syllable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	like	like	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	vowel	vowel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	_
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
18	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	change	change	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	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 | **is a** | present | the tune of a syllable | part |  | Mandarin |  | of the word | tree rules |
| 2 | **change** | infinitive |  | the tune |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tune=Patient |
| 3 | **change** | present | you | the word |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient |

<!-- .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:chinese-street:002-the-four-tones.lesson:1`.

**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): no change. **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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