--- title: Our street: who parked where and who won what — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Our street: who parked where and who won what», a lesson of the adult life course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Every street has its news: who parked where, whose dog barked, who has a new car. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/) [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/) / Our street: who parked where and who w… # Our street: who parked where and who won what Lesson 41 of the adult life course of Mova's primary school: 28 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/0/) — Every street has its news: who parked where, whose dog barked, who has a new car. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/1/) — Grown-ups love swapping it over the fence, and a lot of it is harmless fun. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/2/) — But a story passed along changes shape: a nip becomes «blood everywhere», four kittens become ten, and a guess becomes «everyone knows». - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/3/) — A good way to sort any bit of gossip is to ask four things. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/4/) — What was actually seen? - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/5/) — What has been blown up or guessed? - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/6/) — What is private, the people's own business? - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/7/) — And who could get hurt if the story spreads? - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/8/) — Scene: in Leeds, Nan is at the window with her tea. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/9/) — «That Mr Hollis has parked in Number 9's space AGAIN. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/10/) — Third time this week!» What she saw is one car in one space on Tuesday. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/11/) — «Third time this week» is nobody's count, and why he parks there is his business until somebody simply asks him. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/12/) — Usually the facts are small and boring: a car, a van, an ambulance, a police car for twenty minutes. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/13/) — The exciting parts — the lottery win, the lost job, the «lad who was always trouble» — are what people add to explain the small facts. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/14/) — The kind fix is nearly always the same: a polite word, a knock, a wave, an offer of help — instead of a week of whispering. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/15/) — The confirmed part of a street story is what someone actually saw, like a car parked in a space on Tuesday. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/16/) — Words like «again», «every week», «always» and «everyone» often grow in the retelling; usually nobody counted. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/17/) — A new car and builders in the kitchen are facts; «they won the lottery» is a guess made up to explain them. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/18/) — How much money a family has, why someone is at home on a weekday, and who visits whom are private. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/19/) — «I'm not saying anything, but…» is still saying something; it hints at a story without any facts. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/20/) — Police at a door can mean a burglary, an accident, bad news or someone needing help; it never proves that a person did wrong. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/21/) — An ambulance outside a house tells you someone needed help, not who or why; offer help, not guesses. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/22/) — A couple's marriage is private, and there may be children in the house who hear what the street says. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/23/) — Comments about how someone's face or body looks turn into accusations; «you look well» is enough. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/25/) — Newcomers are busy and tired; the friendly thing is to say hello first instead of deciding they are «stuck up». - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/26/) — Some gossip is a shared joke, like a gnome sending postcards from Spain; it stays fun while the people in it are laughing too. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/27/) — Grumbling about a noisy party is easier than knocking, but a knock and a kind word usually fix it. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/28/) — Before passing a story on, check it: a small nip can become a horror story in three tellings. - ← previous: [Being a good grown-up](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/40-being-a-good-grown-up/) - next →: [Our street: feuds, newcomers and stories that grow](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/42-our-street-feuds-newcomers-and-stories-that-grow/) - ↑ back to [Adult life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/)