--- title: The Shang dynasty, about 1600–1046 BC, carved questions on turtle sh… — China: five thousand years and the oldest dynast… · tree and pragmatics description: The Shang dynasty, about 1600–1046 BC, carved questions on turtle shells and ox bones, heated them and read the cracks as answers from their ancestors; these oracle bones hold the oldest known Chinese writing. Who acts: Shang dynasty, oracle bones. A sentence of the lesson «China: five thousand year --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties/11/) [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/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / [China: five thousand years and the old…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties/) / 11 # China: five thousand years and the oldest dynasties, sentence 11 The Shang dynasty, about 1600–1046 BC, carved questions on turtle shells and ox bones, heated them and read the cracks as answers from their ancestors; these oracle bones hold the oldest known Chinese writing. **Who acts:** Shang dynasty, oracle bones · **What happens:** carve, heat, read, hold, know · **To what, where:** questions, turtle shells, cracks, oldest known Chinese writing This is a sentence of the lesson «China: five thousand years and the oldest dynasties» of the history 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 (Shang dynasty, oracle bones), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:history:051-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties.lesson:11 # text = The Shang dynasty, about 1600–1046 BC, carved questions on turtle shells and ox bones, heated them and read the cracks as answers from their ancestors; these oracle bones hold the oldest known Chinese writing. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = history # lesson = 051-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties.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): R5-strong ×1, R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 Shang Shang PROPN NNP Number=Sing 3 compound _ _ 3 dynasty dynasty NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 nsubj _ _ 4 , , PUNCT , _ 6 punct _ _ 5 about about ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 6 1600 1600 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 3 nmod _ _ 7 – – SYM SYM ExtPos=ADP 8 case _ _ 8 1046 1046 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 6 nmod _ _ 9 BC BC PROPN NNP Number=Sing 6 nmod:unmarked _ _ 10 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 11 carved carve VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 12 questions question NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 obj _ _ 13 on on ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 turtle turtle NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 compound _ _ 15 shells shell NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 nmod _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 17 ox ox NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 compound _ _ 18 bones bone NOUN NNS Number=Plur 15 conj _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 20 heated heat VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 11 conj _ _ 21 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 obj _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 23 read read VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 conj _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 cracks crack NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 obj _ _ 26 as as ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 27 answers answer NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 obl _ _ 28 from from ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 29 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 30 nmod:poss _ _ 30 ancestors ancestor NOUN NNS Number=Plur 27 nmod _ _ 31 ; ; PUNCT : _ 35 punct _ _ 32 these this DET DT Number=Plur|PronType=Dem 34 det _ _ 33 oracle oracle NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 compound _ _ 34 bones bone NOUN NNS Number=Plur 35 nsubj _ _ 35 hold hold VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 11 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=11:conj 36 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 37 oldest old ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 40 amod _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=38:amod 38 known know VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 40 amod _ _ 39 Chinese Chinese ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 40 amod _ _ 40 writing writing NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obj _ _ 41 . . PUNCT . _ 11 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=20:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **carve** | past | the Shang dynasty about 1600 – 1046 BC | questions | | turtle shells and ox bones | | | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent question=Theme on shell=Destination | | 2 | **heat** | past | the Shang dynasty about 1600 – 1046 BC *not said here* | questions *= question* | | | | | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient | | 3 | **read** | past | the Shang dynasty about 1600 – 1046 BC *not said here* | the cracks | | | | as answers from answers's ancestors | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer crack=Stimulus as answer=Attribute | | 4 | **hold** | present | this oracle bones | the oldest known Chinese writing | | | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent writing=Theme | | 5 | **know** | participle | | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «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:history:051-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties.lesson:11`. **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): R5-strong ×1, R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-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: [China: five thousand years and the old…, 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties/10/) - next →: [China: five thousand years and the old…, 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties/13/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties/)