--- title: Whether parrots understand what they say is still argued; Alex seeme… — Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long lives · tree and pragmatics description: Whether parrots understand what they say is still argued; Alex seemed to use some words with meaning, but most pet parrots copy sounds they hear often. Who acts: parrots, Alex, most pet parrots. A sentence of the lesson «Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long lives» of the biology course of Mova's p --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives/5/) [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/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / [Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives/) / 5 # Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long lives, sentence 5 Whether parrots understand what they say is still argued; Alex seemed to use some words with meaning, but most pet parrots copy sounds they hear often. **Who acts:** parrots, Alex, most pet parrots · **What happens:** understand, say, argue, seem, use, copy · **To what, where:** words, sounds · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long lives» of the biology 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 (parrots, Alex, most pet parrots), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives.lesson:5 # text = Whether parrots understand what they say is still argued; Alex seemed to use some words with meaning, but most pet parrots copy sounds they hear often. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives.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 1 Whether whether SCONJ IN _ 3 mark _ _ 2 parrots parrot NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 nsubj _ _ 3 understand understand VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 csubj:pass _ _ 4 what what PRON WP PronType=Rel 6 obj _ _ 5 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 6 say say VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 ccomp _ _ 7 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 aux:pass _ _ 8 still still ADV RB _ 9 advmod _ _ 9 argued argue VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 12 parataxis _ _ 10 ; ; PUNCT : _ 12 punct _ _ 11 Alex Alex PROPN NNP Number=Sing 12 nsubj _ _ 12 seemed seem VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 13 to to PART TO _ 14 mark _ _ 14 use use VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 12 xcomp _ _ 15 some some DET DT PronType=Ind 16 det _ _ 16 words word NOUN NNS Number=Plur 14 obj _ _ 17 with with ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 18 meaning meaning NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=16:nmod 19 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 20 but but CCONJ CC _ 24 cc _ _ 21 most most ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 23 amod _ _ 22 pet pet NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 compound _ _ 23 parrots parrot NOUN NNS Number=Plur 24 nsubj _ _ 24 copy copy VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 12 parataxis _ _ 25 sounds sound NOUN NNS Number=Plur 24 obj _ _ 26 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 27 hear hear VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 25 acl:relcl _ _ 28 often often ADV RB _ 27 advmod _ _ 29 . . PUNCT . _ 12 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: narrate - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: changed hedge=0 | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **understand** | present | parrots | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Parrots *= parrot* | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic | | 3 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | present · passive | | | | | still | | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V» | | 4 | **seem** | past | Alex | | | | | | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | | 5 | **use** | to-infinitive | Alex *not said here* | some words | | | | with meaning | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient | | 6 | **copy** | present | most pet parrots | sounds | | | | | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Theme | | 7 | **hear** | present | Parrots *= parrot* | sounds *not said here* | | | | often *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus | 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:biology:206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives.lesson:5`. **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. **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: [Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long…, 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives/4/) - next →: [Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long…, 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives/6/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives/)