--- title: From that idea came the alphabet, a small set of letters that can wr… — How writing began: from tally marks and pictures… · tree and pragmatics description: From that idea came the alphabet, a small set of letters that can write any word at all, and the letters you are reading now are its great-grandchildren. Who acts: alphabet, small set, you, letters. A sentence of the lesson «How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the alphabet» of the hi --- [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/6/) [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/) / 6 # How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the alphabet, sentence 6 From that idea came the alphabet, a small set of letters that can write any word at all, and the letters you are reading now are its great-grandchildren. **Who acts:** alphabet, small set, you, letters · **What happens:** come, write, read, be · **To what, where:** idea, word, all, letters, great grandchildren 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 (alphabet, small set, you, letters), 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:6 # text = From that idea came the alphabet, a small set of letters that can write any word at all, and the letters you are reading now are its great-grandchildren. # 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 ×1 1 From from ADP IN _ 3 case _ _ 2 that that DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 3 det _ _ 3 idea idea NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ _ 4 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 alphabet alphabet NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=4:obj 7 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 8 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 9 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 amod _ _ 10 set set NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 appos _ _ 11 of of ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 12 letters letter NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 nmod _ _ 13 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 15 nsubj _ _ 14 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 15 aux _ _ 15 write write VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 10 acl:relcl _ _ 16 any any DET DT PronType=Ind 17 det _ _ 17 word word NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obj _ _ 18 at at ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 19 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 15 obl _ _ 20 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=28:punct 21 and and CCONJ CC _ 32 cc _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 letters letter NOUN NNS Number=Plur 32 nsubj _ _ 24 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 26 nsubj _ _ 25 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 26 aux _ _ 26 reading read VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 23 acl:relcl _ _ 27 now now ADV RB _ 26 advmod _ _ 28 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 32 cop _ _ 29 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 32 nmod:poss _ _ 30 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 amod _ _ 31 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 30 punct _ _ 32 grandchildren grandchild NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 conj _ _ 33 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **come** | past | the alphabet | | | that idea | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from idea=Initial\_Location | | 2 | **write** | can | a small set of letters | any word | | all | | | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme | | 3 | **read** | present · progressive | you | the letters *not said here* | | | now | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Topic | | 4 | **is a** | present | the letters | alphabet's great grandchildren | | | | | 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:082-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet.lesson:6`. **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 ×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…, 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/5/) - next →: [How writing began: from tally marks an…, 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/7/) - ↑ 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/)