--- title: That is why our A began as an ox's head («alp» meant ox), B as a hou… — How writing began: from tally marks and pictures… · tree and pragmatics description: That is why our A began as an ox's head («alp» meant ox), B as a house («bet»), M as wavy water («mem») and O as an eye. Who acts: That, A, alp. 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 with its depende --- [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/14/) [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/) / 14 # How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the alphabet, sentence 14 That is why our A began as an ox's head («alp» meant ox), B as a house («bet»), M as wavy water («mem») and O as an eye. **Who acts:** That, A, alp · **What happens:** be, begin, mean · **To what, where:** ox 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 (That, A, alp), 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:14 # text = That is why our A began as an ox's head («alp» meant ox), B as a house («bet»), M as wavy water («mem») and O as an eye. # 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): R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×2, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 That that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 3 nsubj _ _ 2 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 cop _ _ 3 why why ADV WRB PronType=Rel 0 root _ _ 4 our our PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 5 nmod:poss _ _ 5 A A NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ _ 6 began begin VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 advcl:relcl _ _ 7 as as ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 8 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 ox ox NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 nmod:poss _ _ 10 's 's PART POS _ 9 case _ _ 11 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obl _ _ 12 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 14 punct _ _ 13 « « PUNCT `` _ 14 punct _ _ 14 alp alp NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 appos _ _ 15 » » PUNCT '' _ 14 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=17:punct 16 meant mean VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 acl _ _ 17 ox ox NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 obj _ _ 18 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 17 punct _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 20 B B PROPN NNP Number=Sing 5 conj _ _ 21 as as ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 22 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 house house NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 nmod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=20:obl 24 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 26 punct _ _ 25 « « PUNCT `` _ 26 punct _ _ 26 bet bet NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 appos _ _ 27 » » PUNCT '' _ 26 punct _ _ 28 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 26 punct _ _ 29 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 30 M M NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 conj _ _ 31 as as ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 wavy wavy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 33 amod _ _ 33 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 nmod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=30:obl 34 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 36 punct _ _ 35 « « PUNCT `` _ 36 punct _ _ 36 mem mem NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 appos _ _ 37 » » PUNCT '' _ 36 punct _ _ 38 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 36 punct _ _ 39 and and CCONJ CC _ 40 cc _ _ 40 O o NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 conj _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=30:conj|HaikuPos=PROPN:NNP:Number=Sing 41 as as ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 42 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 43 eye eye NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 obl _ _ 44 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: narrate - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: changed act=narrate, polarity=none | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | present | That | | | | | why *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **begin** | past | our A and B as a house and M as wavy water and O | | | | | as a ox's head | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | | 3 | **mean** | past | alp *not said here* | ox | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ox=Topic | 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:14`. **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): R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×2, 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: [How writing began: from tally marks an…, 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/13/) - next →: [How writing began: from tally marks an…, 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/15/) - ↑ 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/)