--- title: People have moaned that the young are "ruining English" for hundreds… — Is there one proper English? The big arguments · tree and pragmatics description: People have moaned that the young are "ruining English" for hundreds of years: the writer Jonathan Swift complained in 1712 and wanted rules to stop English changing; English kept changing anyway, and it is still here. Who acts: People, young, writer, English. A sentence of the lesson «Is there one --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/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/) / [Is there one proper English? The big a…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/) / 0 # Is there one proper English? The big arguments, sentence 0 People have moaned that the young are "ruining English" for hundreds of years: the writer Jonathan Swift complained in 1712 and wanted rules to stop English changing; English kept changing anyway, and it is still here. **Who acts:** People, young, writer, English · **What happens:** moan, ruin, complain, want, stop, changing · **To what, where:** English, 1712, rules · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Is there one proper English? The big arguments» 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 (People, young, writer, English), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:020-is-there-one-proper-english.lesson:0 # text = People have moaned that the young are "ruining English" for hundreds of years: the writer Jonathan Swift complained in 1712 and wanted rules to stop English changing; English kept changing anyway, and it is still here. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 020-is-there-one-proper-english.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): R5-strong ×1, R6-punct-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 People people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 nsubj _ _ 2 have have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 aux _ _ 3 moaned moan VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 0 root _ _ 4 that that SCONJ IN _ 9 mark _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 young young NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 nsubj _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=9:nsubj|HaikuPos=ADJ:JJ:Degree=Pos 7 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 aux _ _ 8 " " PUNCT `` _ 9 punct _ _ 9 ruining ruin VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 3 ccomp _ _ 10 English English PROPN NNP Number=Sing 9 obj _ _ 11 " " PUNCT '' _ 9 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=10:punct 12 for for ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 13 hundreds hundred NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 obl _ _ 14 of of ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 15 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 nmod _ _ 16 : : PUNCT : _ 21 punct _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 18 writer writer NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 nsubj _ _ 19 Jonathan Jonathan PROPN NNP Number=Sing 18 appos _ _ 20 Swift Swift PROPN NNP Number=Sing 19 flat _ _ 21 complained complain VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 22 in in ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 23 1712 1712 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 21 obl _ _ 24 and and CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 25 wanted want VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 21 conj _ _ 26 rules rule NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 obj _ _ 27 to to PART TO _ 28 mark _ _ 28 stop stop VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 26 acl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=25:xcomp 29 English English ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 30 nsubj _ _ 30 changing changing VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 28 xcomp _ _ 31 ; ; PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 32 English English PROPN NNP Number=Sing 33 nsubj _ _ 33 kept keep VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 21 parataxis _ _ 34 changing change VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 33 xcomp _ _ 35 anyway anyway ADV RB _ 34 advmod _ _ 36 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 37 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 38 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 nsubj _ _ 39 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 41 cop _ _ 40 still still ADV RB _ 41 advmod _ _ 41 here here ADV RB PronType=Dem 3 advmod _ _ 42 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **moan** | present · perfect | People | | | | | | vn complain-37.8 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 2 | **ruin** *in a quote* | present · progressive | the young | English | | | | for hundreds of years | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent english=Patient | | 3 | **complain** *speech: other* | past | the writer | | | 1712 | | | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **want** | past | the writer *not said here* | rules | | | | | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot rule=Theme | | 5 | **stop** | to-infinitive | the writer *not said here* | rules *not said here* | | | | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality | | 6 | **changing** | gerund | English | | | | | | tree rules | | 7 | **keep** | past | English | | | | | | tree rules | | 8 | **change** | gerund | English *not said here* | | | | | anyway *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 9 | **is** | present | writer | | | | still | here *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:020-is-there-one-proper-english.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): R5-strong ×1, 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/). - ← previous: [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/) - next →: [Is there one proper English? The big a…, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/1/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/)