--- title: "We've always done it this way" (an appeal to tradition) is not a re… — The politician's either-or and the straw man · tree and pragmatics description: "We've always done it this way" (an appeal to tradition) is not a reason on its own: old ways can be good or bad, so check whether they work. Who acts: We, old ways, interviewers. A sentence of the lesson «The politician's either-or and the straw man» of the world course of Mova's primary school wit --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man/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/) / [The politician's either-or and the str…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man/) / 15 # The politician's either-or and the straw man, sentence 15 "We've always done it this way" (an appeal to tradition) is not a reason on its own: old ways can be good or bad, so check whether they work. **Who acts:** We, old ways, interviewers · **What happens:** do, not be, be, check, work · **To what, where:** question, reason, own · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «The politician's either-or and the straw man» 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 (We, old ways, interviewers), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:world:178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man.lesson:15 # text = "We've always done it this way" (an appeal to tradition) is not a reason on its own: old ways can be good or bad, so check whether they work. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = world # lesson = 178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man.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 ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 5 punct _ _ 2 We we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 3 've have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 aux _ _ 4 always always ADV RB PronType=Tot 5 advmod _ _ 5 done do VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 19 csubj _ _ 6 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 obj _ _ 7 this this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 8 det _ _ 8 way way NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 obl:unmarked _ _ 9 " " PUNCT '' _ 5 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=8:punct 10 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 12 punct _ _ 11 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 appeal appeal NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 appos _ _ 13 to to ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 14 tradition tradition NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nmod _ _ 15 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 12 punct _ _ 16 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 19 cop _ _ 17 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 19 advmod _ _ 18 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 reason reason NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 20 on on ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 21 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 22 nmod:poss _ _ 22 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 19 nmod _ _ 23 : : PUNCT : _ 28 punct _ _ 24 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 25 amod _ _ 25 ways way NOUN NNS Number=Plur 28 nsubj _ _ 26 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 28 aux _ _ 27 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 28 cop _ _ 28 good good ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 19 parataxis _ _ 29 or or CCONJ CC _ 30 cc _ _ 30 bad bad ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 conj _ _ 31 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 32 so so ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 33 check check VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 28 parataxis _ _ 34 whether whether SCONJ IN _ 36 mark _ _ 35 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 36 nsubj _ _ 36 work work VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 33 ccomp _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=33:advcl 37 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **do** *in a quote* | present · perfect | We | question | | | | this way *obl:unmarked*; always *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality | | 2 | **not** **is a** | present | | a reason | | question's own | | | tree rules | | 3 | **is** | can | old ways | | | | | good *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **be** | | old ways *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **check** | infinitive | | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **work** | present | interviewers *= interviewer* | | | | | | vn employment-95.3 «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:world:178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man.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): 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 politician's either-or and the str…, 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man/14/) - next →: [The politician's either-or and the str…, 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man/16/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man/)