---
title: Mardi gras means "fat Tuesday" (gras means fat); it was the last day… — Christmas, Epiphany and pancake day French-style · tree and pragmatics
description: Mardi gras means "fat Tuesday" (gras means fat); it was the last day for rich food before Lent (the weeks before Easter when many Christians ate plainer food), and children often wear costumes for carnival around then. Who acts: Mardi gras, gras, many Christians, children. A sentence of the lesson «
---

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# Christmas, Epiphany and pancake day French-style, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mardi gras means "fat Tuesday" (gras means fat); it was the last day for rich food before Lent (the weeks before Easter when many Christians ate plainer food), and children often wear costumes for carnival around then.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mardi gras, gras, many Christians, children · **What happens:** mean, be, eat, wear · **To what, where:** fat, last day, plainer food, costumes

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Christmas, Epiphany and pancake day French-style» of the french 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 (Mardi gras, gras, many Christians, children), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:french:032-christmas-epiphany-and-pancake-day-french-style.lesson:14
# text = Mardi gras means "fat Tuesday" (gras means fat); it was the last day for rich food before Lent (the weeks before Easter when many Christians ate plainer food), and children often wear costumes for carnival around then.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = french
# lesson = 032-christmas-epiphany-and-pancake-day-french-style.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, R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Mardi	Mardi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	gras	gras	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	_
5	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:desc	_	_
6	Tuesday	Tuesday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
8	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	10	punct	_	_
9	gras	gras	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	10	punct	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	before	before	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Lent	Lent	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
24	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	26	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	parataxis	_	_
27	before	before	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Easter	Easter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
30	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	Christians	Christian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=32:nsubj|HaikuPos=NOUN:NNS:Number=Plur
32	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
33	plainer	plain	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	34	amod	_	_
34	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	26	punct	_	Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=34:punct
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
38	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
39	often	often	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	wear	wear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
41	costumes	costume	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obj	_	_
42	for	for	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	carnival	Carnival	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
44	around	around	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
45	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	40	advmod	_	_
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present | Mardi gras |  |  |  | tuesday |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **mean** | present | gras | fat |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fat=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | past | gras | the last day |  |  | before Lent | for rich food | tree rules |
| 4 | **eat** | past | many Christians | plainer food |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient |
| 5 | **wear** | present | children | costumes |  |  | then | for carnival; around, often *property* | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent costume=Theme |

<!-- .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:french:032-christmas-epiphany-and-pancake-day-french-style.lesson:14`.

**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, R8-pos-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/).

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