--- title: Mandarin nouns usually don't change for plural: "三只猫" means three ca… — Mandarin compared with English · tree and pragmatics description: Mandarin nouns usually don't change for plural: "三只猫" means three cats, and the number shows it; for people, "们" (men) can make a plural, as in "朋友们", friends. Who acts: Mandarin nouns, 三只猫, number, 们. A sentence of the lesson «Mandarin compared with English» of the language course of Mova's primary --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/10/) [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/) / [Mandarin compared with English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/) / 10 # Mandarin compared with English, sentence 10 Mandarin nouns usually don't change for plural: "三只猫" means three cats, and the number shows it; for people, "们" (men) can make a plural, as in "朋友们", friends. **Who acts:** Mandarin nouns, 三只猫, number, 们 · **What happens:** not change, mean, show, make · **To what, where:** three cats, 三只猫, plural This is a sentence of the lesson «Mandarin compared with English» 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 (Mandarin nouns, 三只猫, number, 们), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:034-mandarin-compared-with-english.lesson:10 # text = Mandarin nouns usually don't change for plural: "三只猫" means three cats, and the number shows it; for people, "们" (men) can make a plural, as in "朋友们", friends. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 034-mandarin-compared-with-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): R7-rel-agree ×3, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 Mandarin mandarin ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 2 amod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=2:compound|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing 2 nouns noun NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 nsubj _ _ 3 usually usually ADV RB _ 6 advmod _ _ 4 do do AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 aux _ _ 5 n't not PART RB Polarity=Neg 6 advmod _ _ 6 change change VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ _ 7 for for ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 plural plural NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obl _ _ 9 : : PUNCT : _ 13 punct _ _ 10 " " PUNCT `` _ 11 punct _ _ 11 三只猫 三只猫 NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 nsubj _ _ 12 " " PUNCT '' _ 11 punct _ _ 13 means mean VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=6:advcl 14 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 15 nummod _ _ 15 cats cat NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 obj _ _ 16 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 number number NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 nsubj _ _ 20 shows show VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 13 conj _ _ 21 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 obj _ _ 22 ; ; PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 23 for for ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 people people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 33 obl _ _ 25 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 26 " " PUNCT `` _ 27 punct _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=27:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:'':_ 27 们 们 NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 nsubj _ _ 28 " " PUNCT '' _ 27 punct _ _ 29 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 30 punct _ _ 30 men man NOUN NNS Number=Plur 27 appos _ _ 31 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 30 punct _ _ 32 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 33 aux _ _ 33 make make VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 6 conj _ _ 34 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 35 plural plural NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obj _ _ 36 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 37 as as ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 38 in in ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 39 " " PUNCT `` _ 40 punct _ _ 40 朋友们 朋友们 NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=33:parataxis 41 " " PUNCT '' _ 40 punct _ _ 42 , , PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 43 friends friend NOUN NNS Number=Plur 33 obl _ _ 44 . . PUNCT . _ 6 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** **change** | present · do-support | Mandarin nouns | | | | | for plural; usually *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **mean** | present | 三只猫 | three cats | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Topic | | 3 | **show** | present | the number | 三只猫 | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient | | 4 | **make** | can | 们 | a plural | | | | for people; as 朋友们; friends *obl* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent plural=Product for people=Beneficiary | 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:034-mandarin-compared-with-english.lesson:10`. **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): R7-rel-agree ×3, 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: [Mandarin compared with English, 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/9/) - next →: [Mandarin compared with English, 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/11/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/)