Commas: lists, clauses and clarity, sentence 3
But a comma is not glue: "It was raining, we went inside" sticks two whole sentences together with only a comma, which is called a comma splice; use a full stop, a joining word such as "so", or a semicolon.
Who acts: comma, It, we · What happens: not be, rain, go, stick, call, use · To what, where: glue, two whole sentences, comma, full stop · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of the lesson «Commas: lists, clauses and clarity» of the english 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 (comma, It, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 6 glue | cc |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 comma | det |
| 3 | comma | comma | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 glue | nsubj |
| 4 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 glue | cop |
| 5 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 6 glue | advmod |
| 6 | glue | glue | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 7 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 14 went | punct |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 raining | punct |
| 9 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 raining | nsubj |
| 10 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 raining | aux |
| 11 | raining | rain | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 14 went | advcl |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 went | punct |
| 13 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 14 went | nsubj |
| 14 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 glue | conj |
| 15 | inside | inside | ADV | _ | 14 went | advmod |
| 16 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 glue | punct |
| 17 | sticks | stick | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 glue | parataxis |
| 18 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 20 sentences | nummod |
| 19 | whole | whole | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 sentences | amod |
| 20 | sentences | sentence | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 sticks | obj |
| 21 | together | together | ADV | _ | 17 sticks | advmod |
| 22 | with | with | ADP | _ | 25 comma | case |
| 23 | only | only | ADV | _ | 25 comma | advmod |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 comma | det |
| 25 | comma | comma | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 sticks | obl |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 called | punct |
| 27 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 29 called | nsubj:pass |
| 28 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 29 called | aux:pass |
| 29 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 25 comma | acl:relcl |
| 30 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 32 splice | det |
| 31 | comma | comma | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 splice | compound |
| 32 | splice | splice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 called | xcomp |
| 33 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 34 use | punct |
| 34 | use | use | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 sticks | parataxis |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 stop | det |
| 36 | full | full | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 stop | amod |
| 37 | stop | stop | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 use | obj |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 word | punct |
| 39 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 41 word | det |
| 40 | joining | join | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 41 word | amod |
| 41 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 use | obl |
| 42 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 word | amod |
| 43 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 45 so | mark |
| 44 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 45 so | punct |
| 45 | so | so | ADV | _ | 50 semicolon | advcl |
| 46 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 45 so | punct |
| 47 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 50 semicolon | punct |
| 48 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 50 semicolon | cc |
| 49 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 50 semicolon | det |
| 50 | semicolon | semicolon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 use | obl |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 glue | punct |
Pragmatics
- form
- statement
- act
- assert
- voice
- narrator
- polarity
- neg
- teacher
- changed voice=narrator
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not is a | present | a comma | glue | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | rain in a quote | past · progressive | It | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme» | |||||
| 3 | go in a quote | past | we | inside property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | stick | present | two whole sentences | with a comma; together property | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent sentence=Destination with comma=Theme | ||||
| 5 | call speech: assert | present · passive | a comma | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient | |||||
| 6 | use | infinitive | a full stop | a joining word obl; a semicolon obl | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stop=Patient | ||||
| 7 | join | gerund | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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, 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:english:033-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity.lesson:3.
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. 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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/3/