--- title: A white lie is a small untruth told to protect someone's feelings, l… — Sorry, white lies and «because I said so» · tree and pragmatics description: A white lie is a small untruth told to protect someone's feelings, like "I love it!" about a present you don't like; it thanks the person for their kindness. Who acts: white lie, small untruth, I, you. A sentence of the lesson «Sorry, white lies and «because I said so»» of the adult life course of M --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/37-sorry-white-lies-and-because-i-said-so/8/) [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/) / [Adult life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/) / [Sorry, white lies and «because I said…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/37-sorry-white-lies-and-because-i-said-so/) / 8 # Sorry, white lies and «because I said so», sentence 8 A white lie is a small untruth told to protect someone's feelings, like "I love it!" about a present you don't like; it thanks the person for their kindness. **Who acts:** white lie, small untruth, I, you, thing · **What happens:** be, tell, protect, love, not like, thank · **To what, where:** small untruth, feelings, thing, present, person · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Sorry, white lies and «because I said so»» of the adult life 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 (white lie, small untruth, I, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:adult-life:037-sorry-white-lies-and-because-i-said-so.lesson:8 # text = A white lie is a small untruth told to protect someone's feelings, like "I love it!" about a present you don't like; it thanks the person for their kindness. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = adult-life # lesson = 037-sorry-white-lies-and-because-i-said-so.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 ×1, R8-pos-agree ×2 1 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 white white ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 lie lie NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 nsubj _ _ 4 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 7 cop _ _ 5 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 6 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 7 untruth untruth NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 8 told tell VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 7 acl _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=7:acl|HaikuPos=VERB:VBD:Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 to to PART TO _ 10 mark _ _ 10 protect protect VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 xcomp _ _ 11 someone someone PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 13 nmod:poss _ _ 12 's 's PART POS _ 11 case _ _ 13 feelings feeling NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 obj _ _ 14 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 15 like like ADP IN _ 18 mark _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=18:mark|HaikuPos=SCONJ:IN:_ 16 " " PUNCT `` _ 18 punct _ _ 17 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 18 nsubj _ _ 18 love love VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 8 parataxis _ _ 19 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 18 obj _ _ 20 ! ! PUNCT . _ 18 punct _ _ 21 " " PUNCT '' _ 18 punct _ _ 22 about about ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 present present NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ _ 25 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 28 nsubj _ _ 26 do do AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 28 aux _ _ 27 n't not PART RB Polarity=Neg 28 advmod _ _ 28 like like VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 24 acl:relcl _ _ 29 ; ; PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 30 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 31 thanks thank VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 7 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=7:conj 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 person person NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obj _ _ 34 for for ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 35 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 36 nmod:poss _ _ 36 kindness kindness NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=33:nmod 37 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: changed act=assert, polarity=none, voice=narrator | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | present | a white lie | a small untruth | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | participle | | a small untruth *not said here* | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **protect** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a small untruth *not said here* | someone's feelings | | | | | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feeling=Beneficiary | | 4 | **love** *in a quote* | present | I | thing | | | | about a present | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus | | 5 | **not** **like** | present · do-support | you | a present *not said here* | | | | | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot present=Theme | | 6 | **thank** *speech: thank* | present | thing | | the person | | | for lies's kindness | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent person=Theme for kindness=Attribute | 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:adult-life:037-sorry-white-lies-and-because-i-said-so.lesson:8`. **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 ×1, R8-pos-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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Sorry, white lies and «because I said…, 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/37-sorry-white-lies-and-because-i-said-so/7/) - next →: [Sorry, white lies and «because I said…, 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/37-sorry-white-lies-and-because-i-said-so/9/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/37-sorry-white-lies-and-because-i-said-so/)