---
title: A computer is a machine that follows instructions called a program. — Inventions, computers and the internet · tree and pragmatics
description: A computer is a machine that follows instructions called a program. Who acts: computer, machine, instructions. A sentence of the lesson «Inventions, computers and the internet» of the world course of Mova's primary school with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Inventions, computers and the internet, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A computer is a machine that follows instructions called a program.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** computer, machine, instructions · **What happens:** be, follow, call · **To what, where:** machine, instructions, program · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Inventions, computers and the internet» 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 (computer, machine, instructions), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:world:059-inventions-computers-internet.lesson:4
# text = A computer is a machine that follows instructions called a program.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = world
# lesson = 059-inventions-computers-internet.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): no change
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	computer	computer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	machine	machine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	follows	follow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	instructions	instruction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	program	program	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .note -->
No stored speech act for this sentence.

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | a computer | a machine |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **follow** | present | a machine | instructions |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent instruction=Theme |
| 3 | **call** | participle | instructions *not said here* | a program |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent program=Recipient |

<!-- .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:059-inventions-computers-internet.lesson:4`.

**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): no change. **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/).

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