--- title: Alfred Wegener proposed in 1912 that continents drift, but most scie… — Plate tectonics · tree and pragmatics description: Alfred Wegener proposed in 1912 that continents drift, but most scientists rejected the idea until the 1960s, partly because he could not explain what moved them. Who acts: Alfred, continents, most scientists. A sentence of the lesson «Plate tectonics» of the geography course of Mova's primary schoo --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/42-plate-tectonics/13/) [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/) / [Geography](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/) / [Plate tectonics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/42-plate-tectonics/) / 13 # Plate tectonics, sentence 13 Alfred Wegener proposed in 1912 that continents drift, but most scientists rejected the idea until the 1960s, partly because he could not explain what moved them. **Who acts:** Alfred, continents, most scientists · **What happens:** propose, drift, reject, not explain, move · **To what, where:** 1912, idea, continents · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Plate tectonics» of the geography 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 (Alfred, continents, most scientists), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:geography:042-plate-tectonics.lesson:13 # text = Alfred Wegener proposed in 1912 that continents drift, but most scientists rejected the idea until the 1960s, partly because he could not explain what moved them. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = geography # lesson = 042-plate-tectonics.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): R8-pos-agree ×1 1 Alfred Alfred PROPN NNP Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 2 Wegener Wegener PROPN NNP Number=Sing 1 flat _ _ 3 proposed propose VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 in in ADP IN _ 5 case _ _ 5 1912 1912 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 3 obl _ _ 6 that that SCONJ IN _ 8 mark _ _ 7 continents continent NOUN NNS Number=Plur 8 nsubj _ _ 8 drift drift VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 ccomp _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=3:ccomp|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing 9 , , PUNCT , _ 13 punct _ _ 10 but but CCONJ CC _ 13 cc _ _ 11 most most ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 12 amod _ _ 12 scientists scientist NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 nsubj _ _ 13 rejected reject VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 idea idea NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obj _ _ 16 until until ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 18 1960s 1960s NOUN NNS Number=Ptan|NumForm=Combi|NumType=Card 13 obl _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 20 partly partly ADV RB _ 25 advmod _ _ 21 because because SCONJ IN _ 25 mark _ _ 22 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 23 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 25 aux _ _ 24 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 25 advmod _ _ 25 explain explain VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 13 advcl _ _ 26 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 27 nsubj _ _ 27 moved move VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 25 ccomp _ _ 28 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 obj _ _ 29 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **propose** | past | Alfred | | | 1912 | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 2 | **drift** | present | continents | | | | | | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 3 | **reject** | past | most scientists | the idea | | | until the 1960s | | vn reject-77.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent idea=Theme | | 4 | **not** **explain** *speech: assert* | could | Alfred | | | | | partly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 5 | **move** | past | | continents *= continent* | | | | | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme they=Result | 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:geography:042-plate-tectonics.lesson:13`. **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): R8-pos-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: [Plate tectonics, 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/42-plate-tectonics/12/) - next →: [Plate tectonics, 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/42-plate-tectonics/14/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/42-plate-tectonics/)