pettifog

Who acts: tricky lawyer, you, 's, pettifogging clerk, angry judge, old lawyer · What happens: argue, act, work, stop, pettifog, let · To what, where: fussy way, 's, penny, He, comma · Speech: someone speaks here

«pettifog» in the school dictionary: its 2 meanings for a pupil and its 5 examples, every sentence parsed by Mova itself — its syntax tree, a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, and its pragmatics clause by clause. The word in the dictionary, with its sense in the lessons: pettifog in the school dictionary.

Meaning 1

Usage: old — kept apart, not parsed.

To argue about small, unimportant details in a fussy way.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 argue	mark
2	argue	argue	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	about	about	ADP	_	7 details	case
4	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 details	amod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 small	punct
6	unimportant	unimportant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 details	amod
7	details	detail	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 argue	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	11 way	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 way	det
10	fussy	fussy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 way	amod
11	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 argue	obl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 argue	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	argue speech: disagree	to-infinitive				a fussy way		about small unimportant details	vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.theme S»: agent=Agent about detail=Topic

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.

Meaning 2

Usage: old — kept apart, not parsed.

To act as a petty, tricky lawyer who works on small, mean cases.

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 act	mark
2	act	act	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADP	_	5 petty	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 petty	det
5	petty	petty	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 act	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 lawyer	punct
7	tricky	tricky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 lawyer	amod
8	lawyer	lawyer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 petty	appos
9	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 works	nsubj
10	works	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 lawyer	acl:relcl
11	on	on	ADP	_	15 cases	case
12	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 cases	amod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 small	punct
14	mean	mean	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 cases	amod
15	cases	case	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 works	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 act	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	to-infinitive						as a petty	vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as petty=Attribute
2	work	present	tricky lawyer					on small mean cases	vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on case=Theme

Example 1

Stop pettifogging about the rules and let's play!

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stop	stop	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	pettifogging	pettifog	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Stop	xcomp
3	about	about	ADP	_	5 rules	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rules	det
5	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pettifogging	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 let	cc
7	let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	1 Stop	conj
8	's	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	7 let	obj
9	play	play	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 let	xcomp
10	!	!	PUNCT	_	1 Stop	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	stop	imperative	you not said here			vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	pettifog	gerund	you not said here		about the rules	tree rules
3	let	infinitive	you not said here	's		tree rules
4	play	infinitive	's not said here			vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Example 2

The pettifogging clerk counted every penny.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 clerk	det
2	pettifogging	pettifogging	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 clerk	compound
3	clerk	clerk	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	counted	count	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 clerk	acl
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 penny	det
6	penny	penny	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 counted	obj
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 clerk	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	participle	the pettifogging clerk not said here	every penny					vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent penny=Theme

Example 3

He was called a pettifogger by the angry judge.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 called	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 called	aux:pass
3	called	call	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 pettifogger	det
5	pettifogger	pettifogger	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 called	xcomp
6	by	by	ADP	_	9 judge	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 judge	det
8	angry	angry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 judge	amod
9	judge	judge	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 called	obl
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 called	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	call	past · passive	the angry judge	He					vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient

Example 4

The old lawyer would pettifog for hours over a comma.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 lawyer	det
2	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 lawyer	amod
3	lawyer	lawyer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pettifog	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 pettifog	aux
5	pettifog	pettifog	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 hours	case
7	hours	hour	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 pettifog	obl
8	over	over	ADP	_	10 comma	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 comma	det
10	comma	comma	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pettifog	obl
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 pettifog	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pettifog	would	the old lawyer			a comma	hour		tree rules

Example 5

Don't pettifog — the main idea is right.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Do	do	AUX	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	3 pettifog	aux
2	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	3 pettifog	advmod
3	pettifog	pettifog	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	—	-	PUNCT	_	9 right	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 idea	det
6	main	main	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 idea	amod
7	idea	idea	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 right	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 right	cop
9	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 pettifog	conj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 pettifog	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not pettifog	imperative · do-support	you not said here						tree rules
2	is	present	the main idea					right property	tree rules

Text: the school dictionary of Mova's schools (world/data/dictionary-schools/), written for Mova. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each meaning and example read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pettifog/