--- title: "Ma" and "pa" are among the easiest sounds for babies, so many langu… — How babies learn to talk · tree and pragmatics description: "Ma" and "pa" are among the easiest sounds for babies, so many languages use them for parents (English "mama", Ukrainian "мама", Mandarin "māma", French "maman"); this does not prove all languages are one family. Who acts: Ma, many languages, this, languages. A sentence of the lesson «How babies lea --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/7/) [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/) / [How babies learn to talk](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/) / 7 # How babies learn to talk, sentence 7 "Ma" and "pa" are among the easiest sounds for babies, so many languages use them for parents (English "mama", Ukrainian "мама", Mandarin "māma", French "maman"); this does not prove all languages are one family. **Who acts:** Ma, many languages, this, languages · **What happens:** be, use, not prove · **To what, where:** Ma, one family This is a sentence of the lesson «How babies learn to talk» 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 (Ma, many languages, this, languages), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:031-how-babies-learn-to-talk.lesson:7 # text = "Ma" and "pa" are among the easiest sounds for babies, so many languages use them for parents (English "mama", Ukrainian "мама", Mandarin "māma", French "maman"); this does not prove all languages are one family. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 031-how-babies-learn-to-talk.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): R1-cc-next ×1, R5-strong ×1 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 2 punct _ _ 2 Ma ma NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nsubj _ _ 3 " " PUNCT '' _ 2 punct _ _ 4 and and CCONJ CC _ 6 cc _ Agree=R1-cc-next|Haiku=2:cc 5 " " PUNCT `` _ 6 punct _ _ 6 pa pa NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 conj _ _ 7 " " PUNCT '' _ 6 punct _ _ 8 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 12 cop _ _ 9 among among ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 11 easiest easy ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 12 amod _ _ 12 sounds sound NOUN NNS Number=Plur 0 root _ _ 13 for for ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 14 babies baby NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 nmod _ _ 15 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 16 so so ADV RB _ 17 advmod _ _ 17 many many ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 amod _ _ 18 languages language NOUN NNS Number=Plur 19 nsubj _ _ 19 use use VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 12 parataxis _ _ 20 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 obj _ _ 21 for for ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 22 parents parent NOUN NNS Number=Plur 19 obl _ _ 23 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 24 punct _ _ 24 English English PROPN NNP Number=Sing 22 appos _ _ 25 " " PUNCT `` _ 26 punct _ _ 26 mama mama NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 appos _ _ 27 " " PUNCT '' _ 26 punct _ _ 28 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 29 Ukrainian ukrainian ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=24:conj|HaikuPos=PROPN:NNP:Number=Sing 30 " " PUNCT `` _ 31 punct _ _ 31 мама мама NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 appos _ _ 32 " " PUNCT '' _ 31 punct _ _ 33 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 34 Mandarin Mandarin PROPN NNP Number=Sing 24 conj _ _ 35 " " PUNCT `` _ 36 punct _ _ 36 māma māma NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 appos _ _ 37 " " PUNCT '' _ 36 punct _ _ 38 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 39 French French ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 41 amod _ _ 40 " " PUNCT `` _ 41 punct _ _ 41 maman maman NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 appos _ _ 42 " " PUNCT '' _ 41 punct _ _ 43 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 24 punct _ _ 44 ; ; PUNCT , _ 48 punct _ _ 45 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 48 nsubj _ _ 46 does do AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 48 aux _ _ 47 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 48 advmod _ _ 48 prove prove VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 12 parataxis _ _ 49 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 50 det _ _ 50 languages language NOUN NNS Number=Plur 53 nsubj _ _ 51 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 53 cop _ _ 52 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 53 nummod _ _ 53 family family NOUN NN Number=Sing 48 ccomp _ _ 54 . . PUNCT . _ 12 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | present | Ma and pa | | | | | among the easiest sounds; for babies | tree rules | | 2 | **use** | present | many languages | Ma | | | | for parents | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent they=Theme for parent=Eventuality | | 3 | **not** **prove** | present · do-support | this | | | | | | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **is a** | present | all languages | one family | | | | | 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:031-how-babies-learn-to-talk.lesson:7`. **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): R1-cc-next ×1, R5-strong ×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: [How babies learn to talk, 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/6/) - next →: [How babies learn to talk, 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/8/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/)