--- title: Changing what a word means so that you win is a trap called "no true… — The football argument that goes in circles · tree and pragmatics description: Changing what a word means so that you win is a trap called "no true Scotsman"; arguing about a word nobody has defined is a verbal dispute. Who acts: word, you, Changing, nobody. A sentence of the lesson «The football argument that goes in circles» of the world course of Mova's primary school with --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles/23/) [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/) / [The football argument that goes in cir…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles/) / 23 # The football argument that goes in circles, sentence 23 Changing what a word means so that you win is a trap called "no true Scotsman"; arguing about a word nobody has defined is a verbal dispute. **Who acts:** word, you, Changing, nobody, arguing · **What happens:** change, mean, win, be, call, argue · **To what, where:** trap, word, verbal dispute · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «The football argument that goes in circles» 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 (word, you, Changing, nobody), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:world:170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles.lesson:23 # text = Changing what a word means so that you win is a trap called "no true Scotsman"; arguing about a word nobody has defined is a verbal dispute. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = world # lesson = 170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles.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): R2-punct-next ×1, R5-strong ×1, R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 Changing change VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 12 csubj _ _ 2 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 5 obj _ _ 3 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 word word NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _ 5 means mean VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 1 ccomp _ _ 6 so so SCONJ IN ExtPos=SCONJ 9 mark _ _ 7 that that SCONJ IN _ 6 fixed _ _ 8 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 9 nsubj _ _ 9 win win VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 1 advcl _ _ 10 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 12 cop _ _ 11 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 trap trap NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 13 called call VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 12 acl _ _ 14 " " PUNCT `` _ 17 punct _ _ 15 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 17 det _ _ 16 true true ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 17 amod _ _ 17 Scotsman Scotsman PROPN NNP Number=Sing 13 xcomp _ _ 18 " " PUNCT '' _ 17 punct _ _ 19 ; ; PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ Agree=R2-punct-next|Haiku=12:punct 20 arguing argue VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 30 csubj _ _ 21 about about ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 22 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 23 det _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=24:det 23 word word NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 obl _ _ 24 nobody nobody PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 26 nsubj _ _ 25 has have AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 26 aux _ _ 26 defined define VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 23 acl:relcl _ _ 27 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 30 cop _ _ 28 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 29 verbal verbal ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 30 amod _ _ 30 dispute dispute NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=12:conj 31 . . PUNCT . _ 12 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=5:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: changed voice=narrator | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **change** | gerund | | | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **mean** | present | a word | | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic | | 3 | **win** | present | you | | | | | | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **is a** | present | Changing | a trap | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **call** | participle | | a trap *not said here* | | | | | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | gerund | | a word | | | | | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **define** | present · perfect | nobody | a word *not said here* | | | | | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme | | 8 | **is a** | present | arguing | a verbal dispute | | | | | 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:170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles.lesson:23`. **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): R2-punct-next ×1, R5-strong ×1, R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-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: [The football argument that goes in cir…, 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles/22/) - next →: [The football argument that goes in cir…, 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles/24/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/170-the-football-argument-that-goes-in-circles/)