--- title: Shang kings, over 3,000 years ago, asked their ancestors questions b… — Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and… · tree and pragmatics description: Shang kings, over 3,000 years ago, asked their ancestors questions by heating bones and shells until they cracked, then wrote on them; these oracle bones hold the oldest Chinese writing known. Who acts: Shang kings, families, oracle bones. A sentence of the lesson «Ancient China: dynasties, the Firs --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/10/) [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/) / [Ancient China: dynasties, the First Em…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/) / 10 # Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall, sentence 10 Shang kings, over 3,000 years ago, asked their ancestors questions by heating bones and shells until they cracked, then wrote on them; these oracle bones hold the oldest Chinese writing known. **Who acts:** Shang kings, families, oracle bones · **What happens:** ask, heating, crack, write, hold, know · **To what, where:** ancestors questions, bones, oldest Chinese writing This is a sentence of the lesson «Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall» 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 kings, families, oracle bones), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:history:009-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall.lesson:10 # text = Shang kings, over 3,000 years ago, asked their ancestors questions by heating bones and shells until they cracked, then wrote on them; these oracle bones hold the oldest Chinese writing known. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = history # lesson = 009-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall.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 ×3, R7-rel-agree ×2 1 Shang Shang PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 compound _ _ 2 kings king NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 nsubj _ _ 3 , , PUNCT , _ 7 punct _ _ 4 over over ADV RB _ 5 advmod _ _ 5 3,000 3000 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 6 nummod _ _ 6 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 obl:unmarked _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=9:obl:unmarked 7 ago ago ADV RB _ 9 advmod _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=6:advmod 8 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ _ 9 asked ask VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 10 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 11 nmod:poss _ _ 11 ancestors ancestor NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 compound _ _ 12 questions question NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 obj _ _ 13 by by SCONJ IN _ 14 mark _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=14:case|HaikuPos=ADP:IN:_ 14 heating heating VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 9 advcl _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=9:obl 15 bones bone NOUN NNS Number=Plur 14 obj _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 17 shells shell NOUN NNS Number=Plur 15 conj _ _ 18 until until SCONJ IN _ 20 mark _ _ 19 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 20 cracked crack VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 advcl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=9:advcl 21 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 22 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 23 advmod _ _ 23 wrote write VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 parataxis _ _ 24 on on ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 25 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 23 obl _ _ 26 ; ; PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 27 these this DET DT Number=Plur|PronType=Dem 29 det _ _ 28 oracle oracle NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 compound _ _ 29 bones bone NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 nsubj _ _ 30 hold hold VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 23 conj _ _ 31 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 32 oldest old ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 34 amod _ _ 33 Chinese Chinese ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 34 amod _ _ 34 writing writing NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obj _ _ 35 known know VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 34 acl _ _ 36 . . PUNCT . _ 9 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 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Shang kings | ancestors questions | | | | ago *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient | | 2 | **heating** | gerund | Shang kings *not said here* | bones and shells | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **crack** | past | families *= family* | | | | | | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **write** | past | | | | | then | on families *= family* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on they=Destination | | 5 | **hold** | present | this oracle bones | the oldest Chinese writing | | | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent writing=Theme | | 6 | **know** | participle | | the oldest Chinese writing *not said here* | | | | | 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:009-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall.lesson:10`. **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 ×3, R7-rel-agree ×2. **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: [Ancient China: dynasties, the First Em…, 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/9/) - next →: [Ancient China: dynasties, the First Em…, 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/11/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/)