--- title: About 3,800 years ago, workers in Egypt and Sinai who spoke a langua… — How writing began: from tally marks and pictures… · tree and pragmatics description: About 3,800 years ago, workers in Egypt and Sinai who spoke a language related to Hebrew and Arabic took Egyptian picture-signs and used each one only for the first sound of its name: this was the first alphabet. Who acts: workers, this, SOUND. A sentence of the lesson «How writing began: from tally --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/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/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / [How writing began: from tally marks an…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/) / 13 # How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the alphabet, sentence 13 About 3,800 years ago, workers in Egypt and Sinai who spoke a language related to Hebrew and Arabic took Egyptian picture-signs and used each one only for the first sound of its name: this was the first alphabet. **Who acts:** workers, this, SOUND · **What happens:** speak, take, use, be, name · **To what, where:** language, Egyptian picture signs, one, first alphabet · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the alphabet» 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 (workers, this, SOUND), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:history:082-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet.lesson:13 # text = About 3,800 years ago, workers in Egypt and Sinai who spoke a language related to Hebrew and Arabic took Egyptian picture-signs and used each one only for the first sound of its name: this was the first alphabet. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = history # lesson = 082-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet.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): R1-cc-next ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 About about ADV RB _ 2 advmod _ _ 2 3,800 3,800 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 3 nummod _ _ 3 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obl:unmarked _ _ 4 ago ago ADV RB _ 12 advmod _ _ 5 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 6 workers worker NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 nsubj _ _ 7 in in ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 Egypt Egypt PROPN NNP Number=Sing 6 nmod _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 10 Sinai Sinai PROPN NNP Number=Sing 8 conj _ _ 11 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 12 nsubj _ _ 12 spoke speak VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 13 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 14 language language NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obj _ _ 15 related related ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 amod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=14:acl 16 to to ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 17 Hebrew Hebrew PROPN NNP Number=Sing 15 obl _ _ 18 and and CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ Agree=R1-cc-next|Haiku=17:cc 19 Arabic Arabic PROPN NNP Number=Sing 17 conj _ _ 20 took take VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 conj _ _ 21 Egyptian Egyptian ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 22 picture picture NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 compound _ _ 23 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 22 punct _ _ 24 signs sign NOUN NNS Number=Plur 20 obj _ _ 25 and and CCONJ CC _ 26 cc _ _ 26 used use VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 conj _ _ 27 each each DET DT PronType=Tot 28 det _ _ 28 one one NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 obj _ _ 29 only only ADV RB _ 28 advmod _ _ 30 for for ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 31 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 32 first first ADJ JJ Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 33 amod _ _ 33 sound sound NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 obl _ _ 34 of of ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 35 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 36 nmod:poss _ _ 36 name name NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 nmod _ _ 37 : : PUNCT : _ 42 punct _ _ 38 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 42 nsubj _ _ 39 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 42 cop _ _ 40 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 41 first first ADJ JJ Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 42 amod _ _ 42 alphabet alphabet NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 parataxis _ _ 43 . . PUNCT . _ 12 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | workers in Egypt and Sinai | a language | | | | ago *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **take** | past | workers in Egypt and Sinai *not said here* | Egyptian picture signs | | | | | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sign=Theme | | 3 | **use** | past | workers in Egypt and Sinai *not said here* | each one | | | | for the first sound of SOUND's name | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent one=Theme for sound=Eventuality | | 4 | **is a** | past | this | the first alphabet | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **name** | | SOUND | | | | | | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent | 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:082-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet.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): R1-cc-next ×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: [How writing began: from tally marks an…, 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/12/) - next →: [How writing began: from tally marks an…, 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/14/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/)