--- title: The alphabet began with signs made by workers in Egypt and Sinai aro… — Ideas on the move: numbers, paper, letters, ches… · tree and pragmatics description: The alphabet began with signs made by workers in Egypt and Sinai around 1800 BCE; the first letter, which became A, was a picture of an ox's head. Who acts: alphabet, first letter. A sentence of the lesson «Ideas on the move: numbers, paper, letters, chess and news» of the history course of Mova's p --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/75-ideas-on-the-move-numbers-paper-letters-chess-and-news/8/) [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/) / [Ideas on the move: numbers, paper, let…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/75-ideas-on-the-move-numbers-paper-letters-chess-and-news/) / 8 # Ideas on the move: numbers, paper, letters, chess and news, sentence 8 The alphabet began with signs made by workers in Egypt and Sinai around 1800 BCE; the first letter, which became A, was a picture of an ox's head. **Who acts:** alphabet, first letter · **What happens:** begin, make, become, be · **To what, where:** signs, 1800, picture This is a sentence of the lesson «Ideas on the move: numbers, paper, letters, chess and news» 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 (alphabet, first letter), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:history:075-ideas-on-the-move-numbers-paper-letters-chess-and-news.lesson:8 # text = The alphabet began with signs made by workers in Egypt and Sinai around 1800 BCE; the first letter, which became A, was a picture of an ox's head. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = history # lesson = 075-ideas-on-the-move-numbers-paper-letters-chess-and-news.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 ×1 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 alphabet alphabet NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 3 began begin VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 with with ADP IN _ 5 case _ _ 5 signs sign NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 obl _ _ 6 made make VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 5 acl _ _ 7 by by ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 workers worker NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 obl _ _ 9 in in ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 10 Egypt Egypt PROPN NNP Number=Sing 8 nmod _ _ 11 and and CCONJ CC _ 12 cc _ _ 12 Sinai Sinai PROPN NNP Number=Sing 10 conj _ _ 13 around around ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 14 1800 1800 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 6 obl _ _ 15 BCE BCE PROPN NNP Number=Sing 14 nmod:unmarked _ _ 16 ; ; PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 18 first first ADJ JJ Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 19 amod _ _ 19 letter letter NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 nsubj _ _ 20 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 21 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 22 nsubj _ _ 22 became become VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 19 acl:relcl _ _ 23 A A PROPN NNP Number=Sing 22 xcomp _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=22:obj 24 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 25 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 27 cop _ _ 26 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 picture picture NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 parataxis _ _ 28 of of ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 29 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 ox ox NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 nmod:poss _ _ 31 's 's PART POS _ 30 case _ _ 32 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 nmod _ _ 33 . . 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 | **begin** | past | the alphabet | | | | | with signs | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with sign=Subeventuality | | 2 | **make** | participle | | signs *not said here* | | 1800 BCE | | by workers in Egypt and Sinai | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset | | 3 | **become** | past | the first letter | | | | | | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient | | 4 | **is a** | past | the first letter | a picture | | | | of a ox's head | tree rules | 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:075-ideas-on-the-move-numbers-paper-letters-chess-and-news.lesson:8`. **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 ×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: [Ideas on the move: numbers, paper, let…, 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/75-ideas-on-the-move-numbers-paper-letters-chess-and-news/7/) - next →: [Ideas on the move: numbers, paper, let…, 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/75-ideas-on-the-move-numbers-paper-letters-chess-and-news/9/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/75-ideas-on-the-move-numbers-paper-letters-chess-and-news/)