--- title: "Helping police with their inquiries" is a British phrase for being… — Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and th… · tree and pragmatics description: "Helping police with their inquiries" is a British phrase for being questioned as a suspect (a person the police think may have done the crime). Who acts: Helping, police. A sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary s --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/27-crime-prison-and-police/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/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / [Soft words for hard things: crime, pri…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/27-crime-prison-and-police/) / 13 # Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police, sentence 13 "Helping police with their inquiries" is a British phrase for being questioned as a suspect (a person the police think may have done the crime). **Who acts:** Helping, police · **What happens:** help, be, question, think, do, inquire · **To what, where:** police, British phrase, person, crime · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police» of the euphemisms 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 (Helping, police), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:euphemisms:027-crime-prison-and-police.lesson:13 # text = "Helping police with their inquiries" is a British phrase for being questioned as a suspect (a person the police think may have done the crime). # source = school lesson (ours) # course = euphemisms # lesson = 027-crime-prison-and-police.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 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 2 punct _ _ 2 Helping help VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 11 csubj _ _ 3 police police NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 obj _ _ 4 with with ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 6 nmod:poss _ _ 6 inquiries inquiry NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 obl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=3:nmod 7 " " PUNCT '' _ 2 punct _ _ 8 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 11 cop _ _ 9 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 10 British British ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 11 amod _ _ 11 phrase phrase NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 12 for for SCONJ IN _ 14 mark _ _ 13 being be AUX VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 14 aux:pass _ _ 14 questioned question VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 11 acl _ _ 15 as as ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 16 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 suspect suspect NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obl _ _ 18 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 20 punct _ _ 19 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 person person NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 appos _ _ 21 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 22 police police NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 nsubj _ _ 23 think think VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 20 acl:relcl _ _ 24 may may AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 26 aux _ _ 25 have have AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 26 aux _ _ 26 done do VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 23 ccomp _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 crime crime NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 obj _ _ 29 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 26 punct _ _ 30 . . PUNCT . _ 11 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **help** *in a quote* | gerund | | police | | | | with police's inquiries | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent police=Beneficiary with inquiry=Theme | | 2 | **is a** | present | Helping | a British phrase | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **question** *speech: other* | gerund · passive | | a British phrase *not said here* | | | | as a suspect | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: as suspect=Attribute | | 4 | **think** *speech: other* | present | the police | a person *not said here* | | | | | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent person=Attribute clause=Theme | | 5 | **do** | may · perfect | | the crime | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crime=Eventuality | | 6 | **inquire** *in a quote* | | police | | | | | | nom inquiry «cognition transitive»: poss=agent | 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:euphemisms:027-crime-prison-and-police.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): R5-strong ×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: [Soft words for hard things: crime, pri…, 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/27-crime-prison-and-police/12/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: crime, pri…, 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/27-crime-prison-and-police/14/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/27-crime-prison-and-police/)