---
title: mā («mah» sung high and level) is the first tone, as in māma (mum);… — The four tones: same sound, different meaning · tree and pragmatics
description: mā («mah» sung high and level) is the first tone, as in māma (mum); keep it high and don't let it fall. Who acts: mā, māma. 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 pragmatics of ev
---

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# The four tones: same sound, different meaning, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
mā («mah» sung high and level) is the first tone, as in māma (mum); keep it high and don't let it fall.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mā, māma · **What happens:** sing, be, keep, not let, fall · **To what, where:** mā, first tone, māma

<!-- .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 (mā, māma), 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:6
# text = mā («mah» sung high and level) is the first tone, as in māma (mum); keep it high and don't let it fall.
# 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): R6-punct-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×2
1	mā	mā	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
2	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	4	punct	_	Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=6:punct
3	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=4:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:,:_
4	mah	mah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	_
5	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=4:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:,:_
6	sung	sing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	1	acl	_	_
7	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	level	level	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
10	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	7	punct	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	14	amod	_	_
14	tone	tone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	māma	māma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
19	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	20	punct	_	_
20	mum	mum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
21	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	20	punct	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
23	keep	keep	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	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 | **sing** *speech: express* | participle |  | mā *not said here* |  |  |  | high *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | present | mā | the first tone and māma |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep** | infinitive |  | māma |  |  |  | high *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **let** | infinitive · do-support |  | māma |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fall** | infinitive | māma *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=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:chinese-street:002-the-four-tones.lesson:6`.

**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, R8-pos-agree ×2. **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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