---
title: The first line of a piece of writing is a fishing hook: its job is t… — Openings that hook the reader · tree and pragmatics
description: The first line of a piece of writing is a fishing hook: its job is to catch the reader and make them want the next line, and the next. Who acts: first line, job, them, line. A sentence of the lesson «Openings that hook the reader» of the english course of Mova's primary school with its dependency tr
---

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# Openings that hook the reader, sentence 0

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The first line of a piece of writing is a fishing hook: its job is to catch the reader and make them want the next line, and the next.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** first line, job, them, line · **What happens:** be, make, want, job · **To what, where:** fishing hook, them, next line

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Openings that hook the reader» of the english 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 (first line, job, them, line), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:english:040-openings-that-hook-the-reader.lesson:0
# text = The first line of a piece of writing is a fishing hook: its job is to catch the reader and make them want the next line, and the next.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = english
# lesson = 040-openings-that-hook-the-reader.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	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	amod	_	_
3	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	fishing	fishing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	hook	hook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
14	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	job	job	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	parataxis	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	reader	reader	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=assert

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the first line of a piece of writing | a fishing hook |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | line's job |  |  |  |  | catch *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | infinitive | line's job *not said here* | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **want** | infinitive | them *= they* *not said here* | the next line |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot line=Theme |
| 5 | **job** |  | line |  |  |  |  |  | nom job «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:english:040-openings-that-hook-the-reader.lesson:0`.

**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/).

<!-- /div -->

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