--- title: A ballpoint pen has a tiny metal ball at its tip, often less than a… — Pencils, paper and school things · tree and pragmatics description: A ballpoint pen has a tiny metal ball at its tip, often less than a millimetre wide, that rolls ink from the tube onto the paper; the ink needs to flow down to the ball, so most ballpoints stop working upside down. Who acts: ballpoint pen, tiny metal ball, ink, most ballpoints. A sentence of the les --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/6-pencils-paper-and-school-things/9/) [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/) / [Technology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/) / [Pencils, paper and school things](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/6-pencils-paper-and-school-things/) / 9 # Pencils, paper and school things, sentence 9 A ballpoint pen has a tiny metal ball at its tip, often less than a millimetre wide, that rolls ink from the tube onto the paper; the ink needs to flow down to the ball, so most ballpoints stop working upside down. **Who acts:** ballpoint pen, tiny metal ball, ink, most ballpoints · **What happens:** have, roll, need, flow down, stop down, work · **To what, where:** tiny metal ball, tip, ink, tube, upside This is a sentence of the lesson «Pencils, paper and school things» of the technology 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 (ballpoint pen, tiny metal ball, ink, most ballpoints), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:technology:006-pencils-paper-and-school-things.lesson:9 # text = A ballpoint pen has a tiny metal ball at its tip, often less than a millimetre wide, that rolls ink from the tube onto the paper; the ink needs to flow down to the ball, so most ballpoints stop working upside down. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = technology # lesson = 006-pencils-paper-and-school-things.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, R7-rel-agree ×4 1 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 ballpoint ballpoint NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 compound _ _ 3 pen pen NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 has have VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 6 tiny tiny ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 8 amod _ _ 7 metal metal NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 compound _ _ 8 ball ball NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 9 at at ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 11 nmod:poss _ _ 11 tip tip NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 nmod _ _ 12 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 13 often often ADV RB _ 14 advmod _ _ 14 less less ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 8 amod _ _ 15 than than ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 16 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 millimetre millimetre NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=14:obl 18 wide wide ADV RB _ 14 advmod _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 8 punct _ _ 20 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 21 nsubj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=21:det 21 rolls roll VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 8 acl:relcl _ _ 22 ink ink NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obj _ _ 23 from from ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 tube tube NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obl _ _ 26 onto onto ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 paper paper NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obl _ _ 29 ; ; PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 ink ink NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 nsubj _ _ 32 needs need VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=4:conj 33 to to PART TO _ 34 mark _ _ 34 flow flow VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 32 xcomp _ _ 35 down down ADV RB _ 34 advmod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=34:compound:prt|HaikuPos=ADP:RP:_ 36 to to ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 37 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 38 ball ball NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obl _ _ 39 , , PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 40 so so ADV RB _ 43 advmod _ _ 41 most most ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 42 amod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=42:advmod|HaikuPos=ADV:RBS:Degree=Sup 42 ballpoints ballpoint NOUN NNS Number=Plur 43 nsubj _ _ 43 stop stop VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 44 working work VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 43 xcomp _ _ 45 upside upside NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 obj _ _ 46 down down ADV RB _ 43 advmod _ _ 47 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** | present | a ballpoint pen | a tiny metal ball | | pen's tip | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ball=Patient | | 2 | **roll** | present | a tiny metal ball | ink | | the tube | | onto the paper | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.source PP.destination PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent ink=Theme from tube=Initial\_Location onto paper=Trajectory | | 3 | **need** | present | the ink | | | | | | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | | 4 | **flow down** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the ink *not said here* | | | | | to the ball; down *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **stop down** | present | most ballpoints | | | | | down *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality | | 6 | **work** | gerund | most ballpoints *not said here* | upside | | | | | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent upside=Material | 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:technology:006-pencils-paper-and-school-things.lesson:9`. **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, R7-rel-agree ×4. **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: [Pencils, paper and school things, 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/6-pencils-paper-and-school-things/8/) - next →: [Pencils, paper and school things, 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/6-pencils-paper-and-school-things/10/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/6-pencils-paper-and-school-things/)