---
title: But a comma is not glue: "It was raining, we went inside" sticks two… — Commas: lists, clauses and clarity · tree and pragmatics
description: But a comma is not glue: "It was raining, we went inside" sticks two whole sentences together with only a comma, which is called a comma splice; use a full stop, a joining word such as "so", or a semicolon. Who acts: comma, It, we. A sentence of the lesson «Commas: lists, clauses and clarity» of the
---

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# Commas: lists, clauses and clarity, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But a comma is not glue: "It was raining, we went inside" sticks two whole sentences together with only a comma, which is called a comma splice; use a full stop, a joining word such as "so", or a semicolon.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** comma, It, we · **What happens:** not be, rain, go, stick, call, use · **To what, where:** glue, two whole sentences, comma, full stop · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Commas: lists, clauses and clarity» of the english 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 (comma, It, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:english:033-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity.lesson:3
# text = But a comma is not glue: "It was raining, we went inside" sticks two whole sentences together with only a comma, which is called a comma splice; use a full stop, a joining word such as "so", or a semicolon.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = english
# lesson = 033-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity.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, R6-punct-agree ×2
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	comma	comma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	glue	glue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
9	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	raining	rain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=11:punct
13	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
15	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
17	sticks	stick	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
18	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
19	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	sentences	sentence	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
21	together	together	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=20:advmod
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	only	only	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	comma	comma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	comma	comma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	splice	splice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	xcomp	_	_
33	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	parataxis	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	stop	stop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
40	joining	join	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	41	amod	_	_
41	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
42	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
43	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
44	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	45	punct	_	_
45	so	so	ADV	RB	_	50	advcl	_	_
46	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	45	punct	_	_
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
48	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	semicolon	semicolon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=17:punct
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | a comma | glue |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **rain** *in a quote* | past · progressive | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme» |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | past | we |  |  |  |  | inside *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **stick** | present |  | two whole sentences |  |  |  | with a comma; together *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent sentence=Destination with comma=Theme |
| 5 | **call** *speech: assert* | present · passive |  | a comma |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 6 | **use** | infinitive |  | a full stop |  |  |  | a joining word *obl*; a semicolon *obl* | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stop=Patient |
| 7 | **join** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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:english:033-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity.lesson:3`.

**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, R6-punct-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/).

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