--- title: "See a man about a dog" is a joking excuse to leave the room, usuall… — Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodil… · tree and pragmatics description: "See a man about a dog" is a joking excuse to leave the room, usually to go to the toilet; there is no man and no dog. Who acts: man. A sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school with its dependency tree and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/6-toilet-words/15/) [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: the toilet…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/6-toilet-words/) / 15 # Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions, sentence 15 "See a man about a dog" is a joking excuse to leave the room, usually to go to the toilet; there is no man and no dog. **Who acts:** man · **What happens:** see, joke, be, leave, go · **To what, where:** man, joking excuse, room, toilet · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions» 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 (man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:euphemisms:006-toilet-words.lesson:15 # text = "See a man about a dog" is a joking excuse to leave the room, usually to go to the toilet; there is no man and no dog. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = euphemisms # lesson = 006-toilet-words.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 ×1, R7-rel-agree ×2 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 2 punct _ _ 2 See see VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 12 csubj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=12:nsubj 3 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obj _ _ 5 about about ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 6 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 dog dog NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nmod _ _ 8 " " PUNCT '' _ 2 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=7:punct 9 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 12 cop _ _ 10 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 11 joking joke VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 12 amod _ _ 12 excuse excuse NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 13 to to PART TO _ 14 mark _ _ 14 leave leave VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 12 acl _ _ 15 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 room room NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obj _ _ 17 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 18 usually usually ADV RB _ 20 advmod _ _ 19 to to PART TO _ 20 mark _ _ 20 go go VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 14 advcl _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=14:conj 21 to to ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 toilet toilet NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 obl _ _ 24 ; ; PUNCT : _ 26 punct _ _ 25 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 26 expl _ _ 26 is be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 12 parataxis _ _ 27 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 28 det _ _ 28 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 nsubj _ _ 29 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 30 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 31 det _ _ 31 dog dog NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 conj _ _ 32 . . PUNCT . _ 12 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **see** *in a quote* | infinitive | | a man | | | | about a dog | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus | | 2 | **joke** *speech: other* | gerund | | | | | | | vn chit\_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **is a** | present | | a joking excuse | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **leave** | to-infinitive | | the room | | | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent room=Theme | | 5 | **go** | to-infinitive | | | | the toilet | | usually *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to toilet=Initial\_Location | | 6 | **does** | present | no man and no dog | | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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:006-toilet-words.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): R6-punct-agree ×1, 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/). - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: the toilet…, 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/6-toilet-words/14/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: the toilet…, 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/6-toilet-words/16/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/6-toilet-words/)