--- title: Two negatives together, as in "I didn't see nobody", are a regular p… — Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk,… · tree and pragmatics description: Two negatives together, as in "I didn't see nobody", are a regular pattern in many dialects (and in languages such as French); Standard English says "I didn't see anybody". Who acts: Standard, Two negatives. A sentence of the lesson «Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writi --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/38-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were/9/) [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/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / [Standard English and dialect: "we was"…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/38-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were/) / 9 # Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing, sentence 9 Two negatives together, as in "I didn't see nobody", are a regular pattern in many dialects (and in languages such as French); Standard English says "I didn't see anybody". **Who acts:** Standard, Two negatives · **What happens:** not see, be, say · **To what, where:** nobody, regular pattern, many dialects, anybody · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing» 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 (Standard, Two negatives), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:english:038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.lesson:9 # text = Two negatives together, as in "I didn't see nobody", are a regular pattern in many dialects (and in languages such as French); Standard English says "I didn't see anybody". # source = school lesson (ours) # course = english # lesson = 038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.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): R6-punct-agree ×2, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 Two two NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 2 nummod _ _ 2 negatives negative NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 nsubj _ _ 3 together together ADV RB _ 2 advmod _ _ 4 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 5 as as SCONJ IN _ 11 mark _ _ 6 in in SCONJ IN _ 11 mark _ _ 7 " " PUNCT `` _ 11 punct _ _ 8 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 11 nsubj _ _ 9 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 11 aux _ _ 10 n't not PART RB Polarity=Neg 11 advmod _ _ 11 see see VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 18 advcl _ _ 12 nobody nobody PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 11 obj _ _ 13 " " PUNCT '' _ 11 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=12:punct 14 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 15 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 18 cop _ _ 16 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 17 regular regular ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 amod _ _ 18 pattern pattern NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 19 in in ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 20 many many ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 dialects dialect NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 nmod _ _ 22 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 25 punct _ _ 23 and and CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 24 in in ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 25 languages language NOUN NNS Number=Plur 21 conj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=21:appos 26 such such ADJ JJ Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP 28 case _ _ 27 as as ADP IN _ 26 fixed _ _ 28 French French PROPN NNP Number=Sing 25 nmod _ _ 29 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 25 punct _ _ 30 ; ; PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 31 Standard Standard PROPN NNP Number=Sing 33 nsubj _ _ 32 English English PROPN NNP Number=Sing 31 flat _ _ 33 says say VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 18 parataxis _ _ 34 " " PUNCT `` _ 38 punct _ _ 35 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 38 nsubj _ _ 36 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 38 aux _ _ 37 n't not PART RB Polarity=Neg 38 advmod _ _ 38 see see VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 33 ccomp _ _ 39 anybody anybody PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 38 obj _ _ 40 " " PUNCT '' _ 38 punct _ _ 41 . . PUNCT . _ 18 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=3:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **see** *in a quote* | past · do-support | Standard | nobody | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nobody=Stimulus | | 2 | **is a** | present | Two negatives | a regular pattern | | many dialects and languages such French | | | tree rules | | 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Standard | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 4 | **not** **see** *in a quote* | past · do-support | Standard | anybody | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anybody=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:english:038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.lesson:9`. **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): R6-punct-agree ×2, R7-rel-agree ×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: [Standard English and dialect: "we was"…, 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/38-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were/8/) - next →: [Standard English and dialect: "we was"…, 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/38-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were/10/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/38-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were/)