--- title: A rhetorical question, such as "What was behind the door?", is asked… — Building tension and suspense · tree and pragmatics description: A rhetorical question, such as "What was behind the door?", is asked for effect, not for an answer; it makes the reader wonder with the character. Who acts: rhetorical question, question, reader. A sentence of the lesson «Building tension and suspense» of the english course of Mova's primary school --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/12/) [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/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / [Building tension and suspense](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/) / 12 # Building tension and suspense, sentence 12 A rhetorical question, such as "What was behind the door?", is asked for effect, not for an answer; it makes the reader wonder with the character. **Who acts:** rhetorical question, question, reader · **What happens:** be, ask, make, wonder · **To what, where:** door, rhetorical question, reader · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Building tension and suspense» 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 (rhetorical question, question, reader), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:english:042-building-tension-and-suspense.lesson:12 # text = A rhetorical question, such as "What was behind the door?", is asked for effect, not for an answer; it makes the reader wonder with the character. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = english # lesson = 042-building-tension-and-suspense.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): R7-rel-agree ×2 1 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 rhetorical rhetorical ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 question question NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 nsubj _ _ 4 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 5 such such ADJ JJ Degree=Pos|ExtPos=SCONJ 12 mark _ _ 6 as as ADP IN _ 5 fixed _ _ 7 " " PUNCT `` _ 12 punct _ _ 8 What what PRON WP PronType=Int 12 nsubj _ _ 9 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 cop _ _ 10 behind behind ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 door door NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 acl _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=3:appos 13 ? ? PUNCT . _ 12 punct _ _ 14 " " PUNCT '' _ 12 punct _ _ 15 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _ 16 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 17 aux:pass _ _ 17 asked ask VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 18 for for ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 19 effect effect NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obl _ _ 20 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 21 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 24 advmod _ _ 22 for for ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 answer answer NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 conj _ _ 25 ; ; PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 26 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 27 makes make VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 17 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=17:conj 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 reader reader NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obj _ _ 30 wonder wonder VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 27 xcomp _ _ 31 with with ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 character character NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obl _ _ 34 . . PUNCT . _ 17 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: changed form=decl, act=assert, voice=narrator | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | a rhetorical question | | | the door | | | tree rules | | 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present · passive | | a rhetorical question | | | | for effect and a answer | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient | | 3 | **make** | present | question | the reader | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | infinitive | the reader *not said here* | | | | | with the character | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | 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:english:042-building-tension-and-suspense.lesson:12`. **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): R7-rel-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/). - ← previous: [Building tension and suspense, 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/11/) - next →: [Building tension and suspense, 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/13/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/)