--- title: «A bit of a pickle» means a tricky problem, like being locked out at… — A bit nippy and not ideal: British understatement · tree and pragmatics description: «A bit of a pickle» means a tricky problem, like being locked out at dusk with the keys inside; it has nothing to do with pickles. Who acts: bit. A sentence of the lesson «A bit nippy and not ideal: British understatement» of the language course of Mova's primary school with its dependency tree and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/49-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement/11/) [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/) / [A bit nippy and not ideal: British und…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/49-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement/) / 11 # A bit nippy and not ideal: British understatement, sentence 11 «A bit of a pickle» means a tricky problem, like being locked out at dusk with the keys inside; it has nothing to do with pickles. **Who acts:** bit · **What happens:** mean, lock out, have, do · **To what, where:** tricky problem, nothing This is a sentence of the lesson «A bit nippy and not ideal: British understatement» 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 (bit), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:049-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement.lesson:11 # text = «A bit of a pickle» means a tricky problem, like being locked out at dusk with the keys inside; it has nothing to do with pickles. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 049-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement.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 ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 « « PUNCT `` _ 3 punct _ _ 2 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 bit bit NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 nsubj _ _ 4 of of ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 pickle pickle NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nmod _ _ 7 » » PUNCT '' _ 3 punct _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=3:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:,:_ 8 means mean VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 9 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 10 tricky tricky ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 11 amod _ _ 11 problem problem NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 obj _ _ 12 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 13 like like SCONJ IN _ 15 mark _ _ 14 being be AUX VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 15 aux:pass _ _ 15 locked lock VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 11 acl _ _ 16 out out ADP RP _ 15 compound:prt _ _ 17 at at ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 18 dusk dusk NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obl _ _ 19 with with ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 20 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 21 keys key NOUN NNS Number=Plur 15 obl _ _ 22 inside inside ADV RB _ 21 advmod _ _ 23 ; ; PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 24 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 25 has have VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 8 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=8:conj 26 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 25 obj _ _ 27 to to PART TO _ 28 mark _ _ 28 do do VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 26 acl _ _ 29 with with ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 30 pickles pickle NOUN NNS Number=Plur 28 obl _ _ 31 . . PUNCT . _ 8 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **mean** | present | a bit of a pickle | a tricky problem | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent problem=Topic | | 2 | **lock out** | gerund · passive | | a tricky problem *not said here* | | | dusk | with the keys | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP PP.co-patient PP.instrument»: with key=Instrument | | 3 | **have** | present | bit | nothing | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient | | 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | bit *not said here* | nothing *not said here* | | | | with pickles | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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:049-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement.lesson:11`. **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 ×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: [A bit nippy and not ideal: British und…, 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/49-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement/10/) - next →: [A bit nippy and not ideal: British und…, 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/49-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement/12/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/49-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement/)