--- title: A second is about as long as it takes to say "one Mississippi" or "o… — Alarms, stopwatches and how long a second is · tree and pragmatics description: A second is about as long as it takes to say "one Mississippi" or "one elephant" at a calm speed. 60 seconds make a minute and 60 minutes make an hour, so a minute is sixty of those little "Mississippis". Who acts: second, it, 60 seconds, 60 minutes. A sentence of the lesson «Alarms, stopwatches and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/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/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / [Alarms, stopwatches and how long a sec…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/) / 0 # Alarms, stopwatches and how long a second is, sentence 0 A second is about as long as it takes to say "one Mississippi" or "one elephant" at a calm speed. 60 seconds make a minute and 60 minutes make an hour, so a minute is sixty of those little "Mississippis". **Who acts:** second, it, 60 seconds, 60 minutes, minute · **What happens:** be, take, say, make · **To what, where:** one Mississippi, calm speed, sixty · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Alarms, stopwatches and how long a second is» of the world 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 (second, it, 60 seconds, 60 minutes), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:world:105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is.lesson:0 # text = A second is about as long as it takes to say "one Mississippi" or "one elephant" at a calm speed. 60 seconds make a minute and 60 minutes make an hour, so a minute is sixty of those little "Mississippis". # source = school lesson (ours) # course = world # lesson = 105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is.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): R6-punct-agree ×2, R7-rel-agree ×3, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 second second NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ _ 3 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 cop _ _ 4 about about ADV RB _ 6 advmod _ _ 5 as as ADV RB _ 6 advmod _ _ 6 long long ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 7 as as SCONJ IN _ 9 mark _ _ 8 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 nsubj _ _ 9 takes take VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 advcl _ _ 10 to to PART TO _ 11 mark _ _ 11 say say VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 9 xcomp _ _ 12 " " PUNCT `` _ 14 punct _ _ 13 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 14 nummod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=14:nsubj 14 Mississippi Mississippi PROPN NNP Number=Sing 11 obj _ _ 15 " " PUNCT '' _ 14 punct _ _ 16 or or CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 17 " " PUNCT `` _ 19 punct _ _ 18 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 19 nummod _ _ 19 elephant elephant NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 conj _ _ 20 " " PUNCT '' _ 19 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=14:punct 21 at at ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 22 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 23 calm calm ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 24 speed speed NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 obl _ _ 25 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ _ 26 60 60 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 27 nummod _ _ 27 seconds second NOUN NNS Number=Plur 28 nsubj _ _ 28 make make VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=6:parataxis|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 29 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 minute minute NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obj _ _ 31 and and CCONJ CC _ 34 cc _ _ 32 60 60 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 33 nummod _ _ 33 minutes minute NOUN NNS Number=Plur 34 nsubj _ _ 34 make make VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 28 conj _ _ 35 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 hour hour NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obj _ _ 37 , , PUNCT , _ 42 punct _ _ 38 so so ADV RB _ 42 advmod _ _ 39 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 40 minute minute NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 nsubj _ _ 41 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 42 cop _ _ 42 sixty sixty NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 28 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=28:conj 43 of of ADP IN _ 47 case _ _ 44 those that DET DT Number=Plur|PronType=Dem 47 det _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=47:nsubj|HaikuPos=PRON:DT:Number=Plur|PronType=Dem 45 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 47 amod _ _ 46 " " PUNCT `` _ 47 punct _ _ 47 Mississippis Mississippis PROPN NNP Number=Sing 42 nmod _ _ 48 " " PUNCT '' _ 47 punct _ _ 49 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=28:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | present | a second | | | | | about, long *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **take** | present | it | | | | | | vn require-103 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition | | 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | | one Mississippi or one elephant | | a calm speed | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent mississippi=Topic | | 4 | **make** | present | 60 seconds | | | | minute | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset | | 5 | **make** | infinitive | 60 minutes | | | | hour | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset | | 6 | **is a** | present | a minute | sixty | | | | of that little Mississippis | 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:world:105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is.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): R6-punct-agree ×2, 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: [Timetables: buses, trains, TV and the…, 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/104-timetables-buses-trains-school-day/21/) - next →: [Alarms, stopwatches and how long a sec…, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/1/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/)