---
title: Nylon was invented in the 1930s to replace silk; it was cheaper and… — Plastics: useful and stubborn · tree and pragmatics
description: Nylon was invented in the 1930s to replace silk; it was cheaper and stronger, so people queued for hours for the first nylon stockings; it is used in coats, ropes and toothbrush bristles. Who acts: silk, people. A sentence of the lesson «Plastics: useful and stubborn» of the chemistry course of Mova
---

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# Plastics: useful and stubborn, sentence 16

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Nylon was invented in the 1930s to replace silk; it was cheaper and stronger, so people queued for hours for the first nylon stockings; it is used in coats, ropes and toothbrush bristles.

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**Who acts:** silk, people · **What happens:** invent, replace, be, queue, use · **To what, where:** Nylon, 1930s, silk, coats

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Plastics: useful and stubborn» of the chemistry 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 (silk, people), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:chemistry:029-plastics-useful-stubborn.lesson:16
# text = Nylon was invented in the 1930s to replace silk; it was cheaper and stronger, so people queued for hours for the first nylon stockings; it is used in coats, ropes and toothbrush bristles.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = chemistry
# lesson = 029-plastics-useful-stubborn.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): no change
1	Nylon	Nylon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	1930s	1930	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan|NumForm=Combi|NumType=Card	3	obl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	replace	replace	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
9	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	cheaper	cheap	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	parataxis	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	conj	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	queued	queue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	26	amod	_	_
25	nylon	nylon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	stockings	stocking	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	coats	coat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	ropes	rope	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	toothbrush	toothbrush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	_
37	bristles	bristle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	_
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **invent** | past · passive |  | Nylon |  | the 1930s |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |
| 2 | **replace** | to-infinitive |  | silk |  |  |  |  | vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme silk=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | silk |  |  |  |  | cheap *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | silk *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **queue** | past | people |  |  |  | hour | for the first nylon stockings | tree rules |
| 6 | **use** | present · passive |  | silk |  | coats and ropes and toothbrush bristles |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

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**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:chemistry:029-plastics-useful-stubborn.lesson:16`.

**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): no change. **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/).

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