--- title: A silent letter is written but not said, like the k in knee or the b… — Silent letters and the mystery of -ough · tree and pragmatics description: A silent letter is written but not said, like the k in knee or the b in lamb; most of them are fossils of sounds people really said hundreds of years ago, before the sounds wore away and the spelling stayed. Who acts: k, most, people, sounds. A sentence of the lesson «Silent letters and the mystery --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/0/) [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/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / [Silent letters and the mystery of -ough](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/) / 0 # Silent letters and the mystery of -ough, sentence 0 A silent letter is written but not said, like the k in knee or the b in lamb; most of them are fossils of sounds people really said hundreds of years ago, before the sounds wore away and the spelling stayed. **Who acts:** k, most, people, sounds, spelling · **What happens:** write, not say, be, say, wear away, stay · **To what, where:** silent letter, fossils, sounds · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Silent letters and the mystery of -ough» of the language 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 (k, most, people, sounds), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:013-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough.lesson:0 # text = A silent letter is written but not said, like the k in knee or the b in lamb; most of them are fossils of sounds people really said hundreds of years ago, before the sounds wore away and the spelling stayed. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 013-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough.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, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 silent silent ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 letter letter NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 nsubj:pass _ _ 4 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 aux:pass _ _ 5 written write VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 6 but but CCONJ CC _ 8 cc _ _ 7 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 8 advmod _ _ 8 said say VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 5 conj _ _ 9 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 10 like like ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 k k NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 nsubj _ _ 13 in in ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 14 knee knee NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nmod _ _ 15 or or CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 b b NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 conj _ _ 18 in in ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 19 lamb lamb NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 nmod _ _ 20 ; ; PUNCT : _ 25 punct _ _ 21 most most ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 25 nsubj _ _ 22 of of ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 23 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 nmod _ _ 24 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 25 cop _ _ 25 fossils fossil NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 appos _ _ 26 of of ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 27 sounds sound NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 nmod _ _ 28 people people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 nsubj _ _ 29 really really ADV RB _ 30 advmod _ _ 30 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 27 acl:relcl _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=27:acl:relcl|HaikuPos=VERB:VBN:Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 31 hundreds hundred NOUN NNS Number=Plur 34 obl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=30:conj 32 of of ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 33 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 31 nmod _ _ 34 ago ago ADV RB _ 30 advmod _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=31:advmod 35 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 36 before before SCONJ IN _ 39 mark _ _ 37 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 38 sounds sound NOUN NNS Number=Plur 39 nsubj _ _ 39 wore wear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 30 advcl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=25:advcl 40 away away ADV RB _ 39 advmod _ _ 41 and and CCONJ CC _ 44 cc _ _ 42 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 43 spelling spelling NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 nsubj _ _ 44 stayed stay VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 39 conj _ _ 45 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **write** | present · passive | | a silent letter | | | | | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | | 2 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | participle | the k in knee or the b in lamb | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **is a** | present | most of k | fossils | | | | of sounds | tree rules | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | people | sounds *not said here* | | | | ago *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sound=Topic | | 5 | **wear away** | past | the sounds | | | | | away *property* | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **stay** | past | the spelling | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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:language:013-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough.lesson:0`. **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, 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: [Spelling traps: their, there, they're…, 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/12-spelling-traps-their-there-theyre/17/) - next →: [Silent letters and the mystery of -ough, 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/2/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/)