--- title: Commas in a list separate the items; a comma before the last "and" i… — Grammar puzzles, part one · tree and pragmatics description: Commas in a list separate the items; a comma before the last "and" is called the Oxford comma, and British writers often leave it out. Who acts: Commas, British writers. A sentence of the lesson «Grammar puzzles, part one» of the language 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/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/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/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / [Grammar puzzles, part one](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/) / 13 # Grammar puzzles, part one, sentence 13 Commas in a list separate the items; a comma before the last "and" is called the Oxford comma, and British writers often leave it out. **Who acts:** Commas, British writers · **What happens:** separate, call, leave out · **To what, where:** items, comma · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Grammar puzzles, part one» of the language 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 (Commas, British writers), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:011-grammar-puzzles-part-one.lesson:13 # text = Commas in a list separate the items; a comma before the last "and" is called the Oxford comma, and British writers often leave it out. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 011-grammar-puzzles-part-one.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, R8-pos-agree ×2 1 Commas comma NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 nsubj _ _ 2 in in ADP IN _ 4 case _ _ 3 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 list list NOUN NN Number=Sing 1 nmod _ _ 5 separate separate VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=0:root|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 items item NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 obj _ _ 8 ; ; PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 9 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 10 comma comma NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 nsubj:pass _ _ 11 before before ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 12 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 13 last last ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 nmod _ _ 14 " " PUNCT `` _ 15 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=18:punct 15 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 16 " " PUNCT '' _ 15 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=18:punct 17 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 18 aux:pass _ _ 18 called call VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 5 conj _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 20 Oxford Oxford PROPN NNP Number=Sing 21 compound _ _ 21 comma comma NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 xcomp _ _ 22 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 23 and and CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 24 British British ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 25 amod _ _ 25 writers writer NOUN NNS Number=Plur 27 nsubj _ _ 26 often often ADV RB _ 27 advmod _ _ 27 leave leave VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 18 conj _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=18:conj|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:VerbForm=Inf 28 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 obj _ _ 29 out out ADP RP _ 27 compound:prt _ _ 30 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **separate** | present | Commas in a list | the items | | | | | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent item=Patient | | 2 | **call** | present · passive | | a comma before the last | | | | | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient | | 3 | **leave out** | present | British writers | comma | | | | often *property* | vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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:language:011-grammar-puzzles-part-one.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): R6-punct-agree ×2, R8-pos-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: [Grammar puzzles, part one, 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/12/) - next →: [Grammar puzzles, part one, 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/14/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/)