--- title: Punctuation marks are the traffic signs of writing: they tell the re… — Punctuation that changes meaning · tree and pragmatics description: Punctuation marks are the traffic signs of writing: they tell the reader where to stop, pause, ask or shout, and moving one can change the whole meaning. Who acts: Punctuation marks, marks, moving. A sentence of the lesson «Punctuation that changes meaning» of the language course of Mova's primary s --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/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/) / [Punctuation that changes meaning](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/) / 0 # Punctuation that changes meaning, sentence 0 Punctuation marks are the traffic signs of writing: they tell the reader where to stop, pause, ask or shout, and moving one can change the whole meaning. **Who acts:** Punctuation marks, marks, moving · **What happens:** be, tell, stop, pause, ask, shout · **To what, where:** traffic signs, reader, one, whole meaning · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Punctuation that changes meaning» 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 (Punctuation marks, marks, moving), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:014-punctuation-that-changes-meaning.lesson:0 # text = Punctuation marks are the traffic signs of writing: they tell the reader where to stop, pause, ask or shout, and moving one can change the whole meaning. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 014-punctuation-that-changes-meaning.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 ×1, R6-punct-agree ×2, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 Punctuation punctuation NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 compound _ _ 2 marks mark NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 nsubj _ _ 3 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 cop _ _ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 5 traffic traffic NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 compound _ _ 6 signs sign NOUN NNS Number=Plur 0 root _ _ 7 of of ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 writing writing NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nmod _ _ 9 : : PUNCT : _ 6 punct _ _ 10 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 11 nsubj _ _ 11 tell tell VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=6:conj 12 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 13 reader reader NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 obj _ _ 14 where where ADV WRB PronType=Rel 16 advmod _ _ 15 to to PART TO _ 16 mark _ _ 16 stop stop VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 11 ccomp _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=13:acl 17 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 18 pause pause VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 16 conj _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=6:punct 20 ask ask VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 16 conj _ _ 21 or or CCONJ CC _ 22 cc _ _ 22 shout shout VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 20 conj _ _ 23 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 24 and and CCONJ CC _ 28 cc _ _ 25 moving move VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 28 csubj _ _ 26 one one PRON PRP Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 obj _ _ 27 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 28 aux _ _ 28 change change VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 11 conj _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 30 whole whole ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 meaning meaning NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obj _ _ 32 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=20:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | present | Punctuation marks | the traffic signs | | | | of writing | tree rules | | 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | marks *= mark* | the reader | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent reader=Recipient clause=Topic | | 3 | **stop** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | | | | | | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | | 4 | **pause** | infinitive | | | | | | | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | | | | | | | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **shout** *speech: express* | infinitive | | | | | | | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **move** | gerund | | one | | | | | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent one=Theme | | 8 | **change** | can | moving | the whole meaning | | | | | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient | 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:014-punctuation-that-changes-meaning.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 ×1, R6-punct-agree ×2, 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: [Silent letters and the mystery of -ough, 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/17/) - next →: [Punctuation that changes meaning, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/1/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/)