---
title: Slang is often silly taken word by word: "the bee's knees" (1920s, e… — Slang and how it changes with every generation · tree and pragmatics
description: Slang is often silly taken word by word: "the bee's knees" (1920s, excellent), "don't have a cow" (calm down), "skibidi" (often just a fun nonsense word); you read the whole phrase, not each word. Who acts: Slang, you. A sentence of the lesson «Slang and how it changes with every generation» of the 
---

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# Slang and how it changes with every generation, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Slang is often silly taken word by word: "the bee's knees" (1920s, excellent), "don't have a cow" (calm down), "skibidi" (often just a fun nonsense word); you read the whole phrase, not each word.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Slang, you · **What happens:** be, take, not have, calm down, read · **To what, where:** word, cow, skibidi, whole phrase · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Slang and how it changes with every generation» 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 (Slang, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:language:017-slang-and-how-it-changes-with-every-generation.lesson:3
# text = Slang is often silly taken word by word: "the bee's knees" (1920s, excellent), "don't have a cow" (calm down), "skibidi" (often just a fun nonsense word); you read the whole phrase, not each word.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = language
# lesson = 017-slang-and-how-it-changes-with-every-generation.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): R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Slang	slang	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	bee	bee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	appos	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
16	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	17	punct	_	_
17	1920s	1920s	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan|NumForm=Combi|NumType=Card	14	conj	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	excellent	excellent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	acl:relcl	_	_
20	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	14	punct	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	_
23	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=25:aux|HaikuPos=AUX:VBP:Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin
24	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	have	have	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
29	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	30	punct	_	_
30	calm	calm	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
31	down	down	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	30	punct	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	_
35	skibidi	skibidi	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	35	punct	_	_
37	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	43	punct	_	_
38	often	often	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
39	just	just	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
41	fun	fun	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
42	nonsense	nonsense	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	appos	_	_
44	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	43	punct	_	_
45	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	read	read	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	phrase	phrase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obj	_	_
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	54	advmod	_	_
53	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	54	det	_	_
54	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=decl, act=assert

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Slang |  |  |  |  | often, silly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | participle | Slang *not said here* | word |  |  |  | by word | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **have** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support |  | a cow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **calm down** | infinitive |  | skibidi |  |  |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **read** | past | you | the whole phrase |  |  |  | each word *obl* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent phrase=Topic |

<!-- .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:language:017-slang-and-how-it-changes-with-every-generation.lesson:3`.

**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): 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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