--- title: Meerkats have thin fur and dark skin on their bellies, so after cold… — The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostr… · tree and pragmatics description: Meerkats have thin fur and dark skin on their bellies, so after cold desert nights they warm up by sunbathing belly to the sun; they also eat scorpions, often biting off the sting first. Who acts: Meerkats. A sentence of the lesson «The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wild dogs an --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches/9/) [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/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / [The African savanna area: hippos, meer…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches/) / 9 # The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wild dogs and hyenas, sentence 9 Meerkats have thin fur and dark skin on their bellies, so after cold desert nights they warm up by sunbathing belly to the sun; they also eat scorpions, often biting off the sting first. **Who acts:** Meerkats · **What happens:** have, warm up, sunbathe, eat, bite off · **To what, where:** thin fur, bellies, belly, scorpions, sting This is a sentence of the lesson «The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wild dogs and hyenas» of the biology 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 (Meerkats), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches.lesson:9 # text = Meerkats have thin fur and dark skin on their bellies, so after cold desert nights they warm up by sunbathing belly to the sun; they also eat scorpions, often biting off the sting first. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches.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 ×2, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 Meerkats meerkat NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 nsubj _ _ 2 have have VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 thin thin ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 amod _ _ 4 fur fur NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obj _ _ 5 and and CCONJ CC _ 7 cc _ _ 6 dark dark ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 7 skin skin NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 conj _ _ 8 on on ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 9 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 10 nmod:poss _ _ 10 bellies belly NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 obl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=7:nmod 11 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 12 so so ADV RB _ 18 advmod _ _ 13 after after ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 14 cold cold ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 16 amod _ _ 15 desert desert NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 compound _ _ 16 nights night NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 obl _ _ 17 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 18 nsubj _ _ 18 warm warm VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 19 up up ADP RP _ 18 compound:prt _ _ 20 by by SCONJ IN _ 21 mark _ _ 21 sunbathing sunbathe VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 18 advcl _ _ 22 belly belly NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obj _ _ 23 to to ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 sun sun NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obl _ _ 26 ; ; PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 27 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 28 also also ADV RB _ 29 advmod _ _ 29 eat eat VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 30 scorpions scorpion NOUN NNS Number=Plur 29 obj _ _ 31 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 32 often often ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 33 biting bite VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 29 advcl _ _ 34 off off ADP RP _ 33 compound:prt _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=36:case|HaikuPos=ADP:IN:_ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 sting sting NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=33:obl 37 first first ADV RB NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 33 advmod _ _ 38 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** | present | Meerkats | thin fur and dark skin | | meerkats's bellies | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fur=Patient | | 2 | **warm up** | present | meerkats *= meerkat* | | | | night | | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | | 3 | **sunbathe** | gerund | meerkats *= meerkat* *not said here* | belly | | | | to the sun | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent belly=Patient | | 4 | **eat** | present | meerkats *= meerkat* | scorpions | | | | | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scorpion=Patient | | 5 | **bite off** | gerund | meerkats *= meerkat* *not said here* | the sting | | | | first, often *property* | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sting=Patient | 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:biology:102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches.lesson:9`. **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 ×2, 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 African savanna area: hippos, meer…, 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches/8/) - next →: [The African savanna area: hippos, meer…, 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches/10/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches/)