---
title: A spoonerism swaps the first sounds of two words, as in "a well-boil… — Olympiad: word puzzles — anagrams, palindromes,… · tree and pragmatics
description: A spoonerism swaps the first sounds of two words, as in "a well-boiled icicle" for "a well-oiled bicycle"; it is named after William Spooner, an Oxford teacher who was said to make such slips. Who acts: spoonerism. A sentence of the lesson «Olympiad: word puzzles — anagrams, palindromes, word ladder
---

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# Olympiad: word puzzles — anagrams, palindromes, word ladders, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A spoonerism swaps the first sounds of two words, as in "a well-boiled icicle" for "a well-oiled bicycle"; it is named after William Spooner, an Oxford teacher who was said to make such slips.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** spoonerism · **What happens:** swap, boil, oil, name, say, make · **To what, where:** first sounds, spoonerism, Oxford teacher, such slips · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Olympiad: word puzzles — anagrams, palindromes, word ladders» 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 (spoonerism), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:english:056-olympiad-word-puzzles-anagrams-palindromes-word-ladders.lesson:15
# text = A spoonerism swaps the first sounds of two words, as in "a well-boiled icicle" for "a well-oiled bicycle"; it is named after William Spooner, an Oxford teacher who was said to make such slips.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = english
# lesson = 056-olympiad-word-puzzles-anagrams-palindromes-word-ladders.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 ×2
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	spoonerism	spoonerism	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	swaps	swap	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	6	amod	_	_
6	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=18:mark|HaikuPos=SCONJ:IN:_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
15	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	_
17	boiled	boil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
18	icicle	icicle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
23	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	_
25	oiled	oil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	amod	_	_
26	bicycle	bicycle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
28	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=3:conj
32	after	after	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	William	William	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
34	Spooner	Spooner	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	flat	_	_
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	Oxford	Oxford	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	appos	_	_
39	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	41	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux:pass	_	_
41	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	acl:relcl	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
44	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	slips	slip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obj	_	_
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swap** | present | a spoonerism | the first sounds of two words and a boiled icicle for a oiled bicycle |  |  |  |  | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Theme |
| 2 | **boil** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **oil** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **name** | present · passive |  | spoonerism |  |  | after William |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | a Oxford teacher |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **make** | to-infinitive |  | such slips |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset slip=Product |

<!-- .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:056-olympiad-word-puzzles-anagrams-palindromes-word-ladders.lesson:15`.

**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 ×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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