---
title: The best question in the world has four words: "How do you know?" It… — "How do you know?" · tree and pragmatics
description: The best question in the world has four words: "How do you know?" It isn't rude; it asks for the road from the claim back to the evidence. Who acts: best question, you, question. A sentence of the lesson «"How do you know?"» of the world course of Mova's primary school with its dependency tree and t
---

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# "How do you know?", sentence 0

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The best question in the world has four words: "How do you know?" It isn't rude; it asks for the road from the claim back to the evidence.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** best question, you, question · **What happens:** have, know, not be, ask · **To what, where:** four words · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «"How do you know?"» of the world 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 (best question, you, question), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:world:186-how-do-you-know.lesson:0
# text = The best question in the world has four words: "How do you know?" It isn't rude; it asks for the road from the claim back to the evidence.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = world
# lesson = 186-how-do-you-know.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): R8-pos-agree ×1
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	_
12	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
13	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=21:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:``:_
18	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	rude	rude	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	asks	ask	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	from	from	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	claim	claim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
31	back	back	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	evidence	evidence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: changed form=decl, act=assert, voice=narrator, polarity=pos

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | the best question in the world | four words |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **not** **is** | present | question |  |  |  |  | rude *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | question |  |  |  |  | for the road from the claim | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

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**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:world:186-how-do-you-know.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): 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/).

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Some, all, none and "not all", 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/185-some-all-none-and-not-all/20/)
- next →: ["How do you know?", 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/186-how-do-you-know/1/)
- ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/186-how-do-you-know/)