--- title: A rule that explains every result, good or bad, can never be wrong,… — Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions · tree and pragmatics description: A rule that explains every result, good or bad, can never be wrong, so it tells you nothing; inventing a new excuse each time it fails is called moving the goalposts. Who acts: rule, inventing. A sentence of the lesson «Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions» of the world course of Mova's primary s --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions/15/) [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/) / [Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions/) / 15 # Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions, sentence 15 A rule that explains every result, good or bad, can never be wrong, so it tells you nothing; inventing a new excuse each time it fails is called moving the goalposts. **Who acts:** rule, inventing · **What happens:** explain, not be, tell, invent, fail, call · **To what, where:** result, nothing, you, new excuse, goalposts · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions» 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 (rule, inventing), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:world:161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions.lesson:15 # text = A rule that explains every result, good or bad, can never be wrong, so it tells you nothing; inventing a new excuse each time it fails is called moving the goalposts. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = world # lesson = 161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions.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 1 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 rule rule NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 nsubj _ _ 3 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 4 nsubj _ _ 4 explains explain VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 acl:relcl _ _ 5 every every DET DT PronType=Tot 6 det _ _ 6 result result NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 7 , , PUNCT , _ 8 punct _ _ 8 good good ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 6 amod _ _ 9 or or CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 10 bad bad ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 8 conj _ _ 11 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 12 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 15 aux _ _ 13 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 15 advmod _ _ 14 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 15 cop _ _ 15 wrong wrong ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 19 parataxis _ _ 16 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 17 so so ADV RB _ 19 advmod _ _ 18 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 19 tells tell VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 20 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 19 iobj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=21:nsubj 21 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 19 obj _ _ 22 ; ; PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 23 inventing invent VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 32 csubj _ _ 24 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 25 new new ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 amod _ _ 26 excuse excuse NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 obj _ _ 27 each each DET DT PronType=Tot 28 det _ _ 28 time time NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obl:unmarked _ _ 29 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 30 nsubj _ _ 30 fails fail VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 26 acl:relcl _ _ 31 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 32 aux:pass _ _ 32 called call VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 19 parataxis _ _ 33 moving move VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 32 xcomp _ _ 34 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 35 goalposts goalpost NOUN NNS Number=Plur 33 obj _ _ 36 . . PUNCT . _ 15 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=19:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | present | a rule | every result | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent result=Topic | | 2 | **not** **is** | can | a rule | | | | | wrong *property* | tree rules | | 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | rule | nothing | you | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient nothing=Topic | | 4 | **invent** | gerund | | a new excuse | | | | | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent excuse=Result | | 5 | **fail** | present | rule | a new excuse *not said here* | | | time | | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent excuse=Eventuality | | 6 | **call** *speech: assert* | present · passive | inventing | | | | | | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: clause=Topic | | 7 | **move** | gerund | inventing *not said here* | the goalposts | | | | | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent goalpost=Theme | 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:161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions.lesson:15`. **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. **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: [Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions, 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions/14/) - next →: [Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions, 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions/16/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions/)