--- title: English belongs to everyone who speaks it: there are more people spe… — Is there one proper English? The big arguments · tree and pragmatics description: English belongs to everyone who speaks it: there are more people speaking it as a second language than as a first, and a Kenyan, Nigerian or Indian speaker may have spoken it all their life, so "Your English is very good!" can be a strange thing to say. Who acts: English, more people, Kenyan Nigeria --- [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/4/) [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/) / 4 # Is there one proper English? The big arguments, sentence 4 English belongs to everyone who speaks it: there are more people speaking it as a second language than as a first, and a Kenyan, Nigerian or Indian speaker may have spoken it all their life, so "Your English is very good!" can be a strange thing to say. **Who acts:** English, more people, Kenyan Nigerian Indian speaker · **What happens:** belong, speak, be, say · **To what, where:** Académie, good strange thing · **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 (English, more people, Kenyan Nigerian Indian speaker), 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:4 # text = English belongs to everyone who speaks it: there are more people speaking it as a second language than as a first, and a Kenyan, Nigerian or Indian speaker may have spoken it all their life, so "Your English is very good!" can be a strange thing to say. # 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, R7-rel-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 English English PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 2 belongs belong VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 to to ADP IN _ 4 case _ _ 4 everyone everyone PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Tot 2 obl _ _ 5 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 6 nsubj _ _ 6 speaks speak VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 acl:relcl _ _ 7 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 obj _ _ 8 : : PUNCT : _ 10 punct _ _ 9 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 10 expl _ _ 10 are be VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=2:conj 11 more more ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 12 amod _ _ 12 people people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 nsubj _ _ 13 speaking speak VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 12 acl _ _ 14 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 13 obj _ _ 15 as as ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 16 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 17 second second ADJ JJ Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 18 amod _ _ 18 language language NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obl _ _ 19 than than ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 20 as as SCONJ IN _ 38 mark _ _ 21 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 22 det _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=38:det 22 first first ADV RB NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 26 advmod _ _ 23 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 24 and and CCONJ CC _ 26 cc _ _ 25 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 Kenyan kenyan ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 27 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 28 Nigerian Nigerian PROPN NNP Number=Sing 31 amod _ _ 29 or or CCONJ CC _ 28 cc _ _ 30 Indian Indian ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 speaker speaker NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 nsubj _ _ 32 may may AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 34 aux _ _ 33 have have AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 34 aux _ _ 34 spoken speak VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 10 conj _ _ 35 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 34 obj _ _ 36 all all DET PDT PronType=Tot 38 det:predet _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=38:det:predet|HaikuPos=DET:DT:PronType=Tot 37 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 38 nmod:poss _ _ 38 life life NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obl _ _ 39 , , PUNCT , _ 46 punct _ _ 40 so so ADV RB _ 46 advmod _ _ 41 " " PUNCT `` _ 46 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=40:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:'':_ 42 Your your PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 43 nmod:poss _ _ 43 English English PROPN NNP Number=Sing 46 nsubj _ _ 44 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 46 cop _ _ 45 very very ADV RB _ 46 advmod _ _ 46 good good ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 53 amod _ _ 47 ! ! PUNCT . _ 46 punct _ _ 48 " " PUNCT '' _ 46 punct _ _ 49 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 53 aux _ _ 50 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 53 cop _ _ 51 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 53 det _ _ 52 strange strange ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 53 amod _ _ 53 thing thing NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 parataxis _ _ 54 to to PART TO _ 55 mark _ _ 55 say say VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 53 acl _ _ 56 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **belong** | present | English | | | | | to everyone | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | | Académie | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **does** | present | more people | | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | more people *not said here* | Académie | | | | as a second language | tree rules | | 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | may · perfect | Kenyan Nigerian Indian speaker | Académie | | | | than People's life | tree rules | | 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Your English | | | | | good *property* | tree rules | | 7 | **is a** | can | | a good strange thing | | | | | tree rules | | 8 | **say** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | English *not said here* | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | 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:4`. **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, R7-rel-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: [Is there one proper English? The big a…, 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/3/) - next →: [Is there one proper English? The big a…, 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/5/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/)