--- title: The most common Mandarin swear is built on insulting someone's mothe… — Words that hurt — what they mean, never to be said · tree and pragmatics description: The most common Mandarin swear is built on insulting someone's mother and is used like "damn it"; any angry phrase about "your mother" or "his mother" is a swear, never to be repeated. Who acts: angry phrase. A sentence of the lesson «Words that hurt — what they mean, never to be said» of the chines --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/24-words-that-hurt/13/) [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/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) / [Words that hurt — what they mean, neve…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/24-words-that-hurt/) / 13 # Words that hurt — what they mean, never to be said, sentence 13 The most common Mandarin swear is built on insulting someone's mother and is used like "damn it"; any angry phrase about "your mother" or "his mother" is a swear, never to be repeated. **Who acts:** angry phrase · **What happens:** build, insult, use, be, not repeat · **To what, where:** common Mandarin swear, mother, swear This is a sentence of the lesson «Words that hurt — what they mean, never to be said» of the chinese street 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 (angry phrase), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:chinese-street:024-words-that-hurt.lesson:13 # text = The most common Mandarin swear is built on insulting someone's mother and is used like "damn it"; any angry phrase about "your mother" or "his mother" is a swear, never to be repeated. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = chinese-street # lesson = 024-words-that-hurt.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): R7-rel-agree ×4 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 2 most most ADV RBS Degree=Sup 3 advmod _ _ 3 common common ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 amod _ _ 4 Mandarin Mandarin ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 amod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=5:compound|HaikuPos=PROPN:NNP:Number=Sing 5 swear swear NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 nsubj _ _ 6 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 7 aux:pass _ _ 7 built build VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 8 on on SCONJ IN _ 9 mark _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=9:case|HaikuPos=ADP:IN:_ 9 insulting insult VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 7 advcl _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=7:obl 10 someone someone PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 12 nmod:poss _ _ 11 's 's PART POS _ 10 case _ _ 12 mother mother NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ _ 13 and and CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 14 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 15 aux:pass _ _ 15 used use VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 7 conj _ _ 16 like like ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 17 " " PUNCT `` _ 19 punct _ _ 18 damn damn ADV RB _ 19 advmod _ _ 19 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 15 obl _ _ 20 " " PUNCT '' _ 19 punct _ _ 21 ; ; PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 22 any any DET DT PronType=Ind 24 det _ _ 23 angry angry ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 24 phrase phrase NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 nsubj _ _ 25 about about ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 26 " " PUNCT `` _ 28 punct _ _ 27 your your PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 28 nmod:poss _ _ 28 mother mother NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 nmod _ _ 29 " " PUNCT '' _ 28 punct _ _ 30 or or CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 31 " " PUNCT `` _ 33 punct _ _ 32 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 33 nmod:poss _ _ 33 mother mother NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 conj _ _ 34 " " PUNCT '' _ 33 punct _ _ 35 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 37 cop _ _ 36 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 37 swear swear NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=7:conj 38 , , PUNCT , _ 42 punct _ _ 39 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 42 advmod _ _ 40 to to PART TO _ 42 mark _ _ 41 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 42 aux:pass _ _ 42 repeated repeat VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 37 conj _ _ 43 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **build** | present · passive | | the common Mandarin swear | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product | | 2 | **insult** | gerund | | someone's mother | | | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus mother=Experiencer | | 3 | **use** | present · passive | | | | | | like swear | vn eat-39.1 «NP V» | | 4 | **is a** | present | any angry phrase about your mother or turtle's mother | a swear | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **not** **repeat** | to-infinitive · passive | any angry phrase about your mother or turtle's mother *not said here* | | | | | | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V» | 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:chinese-street:024-words-that-hurt.lesson:13`. **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): R7-rel-agree ×4. **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: [Words that hurt — what they mean, neve…, 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/24-words-that-hurt/12/) - next →: [Words that hurt — what they mean, neve…, 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/24-words-that-hurt/14/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/24-words-that-hurt/)