---
title: A cat's pupils open wide in dim light or when it is excited and shri… — How real cats hunt: stalking, waiting and pouncing · tree and pragmatics
description: A cat's pupils open wide in dim light or when it is excited and shrink to thin slits in bright light; slit pupils, which small cats have, can close very tightly in sun and open very wide at dusk, while lions have round pupils. Who acts: pupils, cat, small cats, slit pupils. A sentence of the lesson 
---

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# How real cats hunt: stalking, waiting and pouncing, sentence 7

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A cat's pupils open wide in dim light or when it is excited and shrink to thin slits in bright light; slit pupils, which small cats have, can close very tightly in sun and open very wide at dusk, while lions have round pupils.

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**Who acts:** pupils, cat, small cats, slit pupils, lions · **What happens:** open, be, shrink, have, close · **To what, where:** dim light, bright light, slit pupils, round pupils

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This is a sentence of the lesson «How real cats hunt: stalking, waiting and pouncing» 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 (pupils, cat, small cats, slit pupils), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:119-how-real-cats-hunt.lesson:7
# text = A cat's pupils open wide in dim light or when it is excited and shrink to thin slits in bright light; slit pupils, which small cats have, can close very tightly in sun and open very wide at dusk, while lions have round pupils.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 119-how-real-cats-hunt.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, R7-rel-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	pupils	pupil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	open	open	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	wide	wide	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=9:advmod
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	dim	dim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=14:mark|HaikuPos=SCONJ:WRB:_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	excited	excited	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	shrink	shrink	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=19:case|HaikuPos=ADP:TO:_
18	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	slits	slit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
24	slit	slit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	pupils	pupil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	obj	_	_
28	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
30	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
32	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
34	very	very	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	tightly	tightly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	conj	_	_
40	very	very	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	wide	wide	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
42	at	at	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	dusk	dusk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
45	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
46	lions	lion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nsubj	_	_
47	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	39	advcl	_	_
48	round	round	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	pupils	pupil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	_
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | present | a cat's pupils |  |  | dim light |  | wide *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent in light=Location |
| 2 | **is** | present | cat |  |  |  |  | excited *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **shrink** | present | a cat's pupils *not said here* |  |  | bright light |  | to thin slits *result* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent to slit=Result |
| 4 | **have** | present | small cats | slit pupils |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Patient |
| 5 | **close** | can | slit pupils |  |  |  |  | in sun; tightly *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent in sun=Topic |
| 6 | **open** | infinitive | slit pupils *not said here* |  |  |  | dusk | wide *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **have** | present | lions | round pupils |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pupil=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

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**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:119-how-real-cats-hunt.lesson:7`.

**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, R7-rel-agree ×1, 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/).

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