--- title: The apostrophe (') has two jobs: it shows missing letters (it's = it… — The apostrophe war · tree and pragmatics description: The apostrophe (') has two jobs: it shows missing letters (it's = it is, don't = do not) and it shows belonging (the dog's bowl); it never makes a plain plural, so "Apple's 40p" on a shop sign is wrong. Who acts: apostrophe, 40 p. A sentence of the lesson «The apostrophe war» of the language course --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/0/) [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/) / [The apostrophe war](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/) / 0 # The apostrophe war, sentence 0 The apostrophe (') has two jobs: it shows missing letters (it's = it is, don't = do not) and it shows belonging (the dog's bowl); it never makes a plain plural, so "Apple's 40p" on a shop sign is wrong. **Who acts:** apostrophe, 40 p · **What happens:** have, show, be, do, not do, not make · **To what, where:** two jobs, missing letters, belonging, plain plural This is a sentence of the lesson «The apostrophe war» 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 (apostrophe, 40 p), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:015-the-apostrophe-war.lesson:0 # text = The apostrophe (') has two jobs: it shows missing letters (it's = it is, don't = do not) and it shows belonging (the dog's bowl); it never makes a plain plural, so "Apple's 40p" on a shop sign is wrong. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 015-the-apostrophe-war.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 ×3, R7-rel-agree ×4 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 apostrophe apostrophe NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ _ 3 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 2 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=4:punct 4 ' ' PUNCT '' _ 2 punct _ _ 5 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 2 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=4:punct 6 has have VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 7 two two NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 8 nummod _ _ 8 jobs job NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 obj _ _ 9 : : PUNCT : _ 11 punct _ _ 10 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 11 nsubj _ _ 11 shows show VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=6:conj 12 missing missing ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 13 amod _ _ 13 letters letter NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 obj _ _ 14 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 16 punct _ _ 15 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 16 nsubj _ _ 16 's be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ _ 17 = = PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 18 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 19 is be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 16 advcl _ _ 20 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 21 do do VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 19 xcomp _ _ 22 n't not PART RB Polarity=Neg 24 advmod _ _ 23 = = PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 24 do do VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 21 ccomp _ _ 25 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 24 advmod _ _ 26 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 16 punct _ _ 27 and and CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 28 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 29 shows show VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 30 belonging belong NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=29:ccomp|HaikuPos=VERB:VBG:VerbForm=Ger 31 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 35 punct _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 dog dog NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 nmod:poss _ _ 34 's 's PART POS _ 33 case _ _ 35 bowl bowl NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 appos _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=30:parataxis 36 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 35 punct _ _ 37 ; ; PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 38 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 nsubj _ _ 39 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 40 advmod _ _ 40 makes make VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=6:conj 41 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 42 plain plain ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ _ 43 plural plural NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 obj _ _ 44 , , PUNCT , _ 57 punct _ _ 45 so so ADV RB _ 57 advmod _ _ 46 " " PUNCT `` _ 50 punct _ _ 47 Apple Apple PROPN NNP Number=Sing 50 nmod:poss _ _ 48 's 's PART POS _ 47 case _ _ 49 40 40 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 50 nummod _ _ 50 p p NOUN NN Number=Sing 57 nsubj _ _ 51 " " PUNCT '' _ 50 punct _ _ 52 on on ADP IN _ 55 case _ _ 53 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 55 det _ _ 54 shop shop NOUN NN Number=Sing 55 compound _ _ 55 sign sign NOUN NN Number=Sing 50 nmod _ _ 56 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 57 cop _ _ 57 wrong wrong ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 40 advcl _ _ 58 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=40:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: neg - teacher: changed act=assert | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** | present | the apostrophe | two jobs | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent job=Patient | | 2 | **show** | present | apostrophe | missing letters | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent letter=Recipient | | 3 | **be** | present | apostrophe | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **be** | present | apostrophe | | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **do** | infinitive | apostrophe *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **not** **do** | infinitive | apostrophe *not said here* | | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **show** | present | apostrophe | belonging | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent belong=Recipient | | 8 | **not** **make** | present | apostrophe | a plain plural | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material plural=Product | | 9 | **is** | present | Apple's 40 p on a shop sign | | | | | wrong *property* | tree rules | 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:015-the-apostrophe-war.lesson:0`. **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 ×3, R7-rel-agree ×4. **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: [Punctuation that changes meaning, 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/18/) - next →: [The apostrophe war, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/1/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/)