--- title: "I couldn't care less" and the American "I could care less" both mea… — Accents and dialects around the world · tree and pragmatics description: "I couldn't care less" and the American "I could care less" both mean "I don't care at all"; "couldn't" is the original and makes more sense, so use it in careful writing. Who acts: millions, both. A sentence of the lesson «Accents and dialects around the world» of the language course of Mova's prim --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/19-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world/14/) [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/) / [Accents and dialects around the world](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/19-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world/) / 14 # Accents and dialects around the world, sentence 14 "I couldn't care less" and the American "I could care less" both mean "I don't care at all"; "couldn't" is the original and makes more sense, so use it in careful writing. **Who acts:** millions, both · **What happens:** not care, care, mean, not be, make, use · **To what, where:** all, more sense, sense, careful writing · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Accents and dialects around the world» 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 (millions, both), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:019-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world.lesson:14 # text = "I couldn't care less" and the American "I could care less" both mean "I don't care at all"; "couldn't" is the original and makes more sense, so use it in careful writing. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 019-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world.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 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 5 punct _ _ 2 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 3 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 5 aux _ _ 4 n't not PART RB Polarity=Neg 5 advmod _ _ 5 care care VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 34 parataxis _ _ 6 less less ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 5 advmod _ _ 7 " " PUNCT '' _ 5 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 10 American American ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 conj _ _ 11 " " PUNCT `` _ 14 punct _ _ 12 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 14 nsubj _ _ 13 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 14 aux _ _ 14 care care VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 10 conj _ _ 15 less less ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 14 advmod _ _ 16 " " PUNCT '' _ 14 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=15:punct 17 both both PRON DT PronType=Tot 18 nsubj _ _ 18 mean mean VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 14 conj _ _ 19 " " PUNCT `` _ 23 punct _ _ 20 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 23 nsubj _ _ 21 do do AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 23 aux _ _ 22 n't not PART RB Polarity=Neg 23 advmod _ _ 23 care care VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 18 ccomp _ _ 24 at at ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 25 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 23 obl _ _ 26 " " PUNCT '' _ 23 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=25:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:``:_ 27 ; ; PUNCT , _ 5 punct _ _ 28 " " PUNCT `` _ 29 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=5:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:'':_ 29 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 34 aux _ _ 30 n't not PART RB Polarity=Neg 34 advmod _ _ 31 " " PUNCT '' _ 30 punct _ _ 32 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 34 cop _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 original original ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 36 makes make VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 34 conj _ _ 37 more more ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 38 amod _ _ 38 sense sense NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obj _ _ 39 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 40 so so ADV RB _ 41 advmod _ _ 41 use use VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 36 parataxis _ _ 42 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 obj _ _ 43 in in ADP IN _ 45 case _ _ 44 careful careful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 45 amod _ _ 45 writing writing NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obl _ _ 46 . . PUNCT . _ 34 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **care** *in a quote* | could | millions *= million* | | | | | less *property* | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | | 2 | **care** *in a quote* | could | millions *= million* | | | | | less *property* | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | | 3 | **mean** | present | both | | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 4 | **not** **care** *in a quote* | present · do-support | millions *= million* | | | all | | | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | | 5 | **not** **is** | could | | | | | | original *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **make** | present | | more sense | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sense=Product | | 7 | **use** | infinitive | | sense | | careful writing | | | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | 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:019-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world.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 ×3. **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: [Accents and dialects around the world, 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/19-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world/13/) - next →: [Accents and dialects around the world, 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/19-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world/15/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/19-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world/)