--- title: An elephant spreads its ears to look bigger and charges to scare a t… — Myth check: are elephants scared of mice? · tree and pragmatics description: An elephant spreads its ears to look bigger and charges to scare a threat, but many charges are bluffs that stop before contact; flapping ears also cools it. Who acts: elephant, many charges, bluffs, flapping ears. A sentence of the lesson «Myth check: are elephants scared of mice?» of the biology c --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice/14/) [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/) / [Myth check: are elephants scared of mi…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice/) / 14 # Myth check: are elephants scared of mice?, sentence 14 An elephant spreads its ears to look bigger and charges to scare a threat, but many charges are bluffs that stop before contact; flapping ears also cools it. **Who acts:** elephant, many charges, bluffs, flapping ears · **What happens:** spread, look, charge, scare, be, stop · **To what, where:** ears, threat, bluffs, water This is a sentence of the lesson «Myth check: are elephants scared of mice?» 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 (elephant, many charges, bluffs, flapping ears), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice.lesson:14 # text = An elephant spreads its ears to look bigger and charges to scare a threat, but many charges are bluffs that stop before contact; flapping ears also cools it. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice.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, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 An a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 elephant elephant NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 3 spreads spread VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 5 nmod:poss _ _ 5 ears ear NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 obj _ _ 6 to to PART TO _ 7 mark _ _ 7 look look VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 3 advcl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=5:acl 8 bigger big ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 7 xcomp _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 10 charges charge VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 11 to to PART TO _ 12 mark _ _ 12 scare scare VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 10 xcomp _ _ 13 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 14 threat threat NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obj _ _ 15 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ Agree=R2-punct-next|Haiku=3:punct 16 but but CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 17 many many ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 amod _ _ 18 charges charge NOUN NNS Number=Plur 20 nsubj _ _ 19 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 20 cop _ _ 20 bluffs bluff NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 conj _ _ 21 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 22 nsubj _ _ 22 stop stop VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 20 acl:relcl _ _ 23 before before ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 contact contact NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 obl _ _ 25 ; ; PUNCT : _ 29 punct _ _ 26 flapping flap VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 27 amod _ _ 27 ears ear NOUN NNS Number=Plur 29 nsubj _ _ 28 also also ADV RB _ 29 advmod _ _ 29 cools cool VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=3:conj 30 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 obj _ _ 31 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **spread** | present | a elephant | water's ears | | | | | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location ear=Theme | | 2 | **look** | to-infinitive | a elephant *not said here* | | | | | big *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus | | 3 | **charge** | present | a elephant *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **scare** | to-infinitive | a elephant *not said here* | a threat | | | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus threat=Experiencer | | 5 | **is a** | present | many charges | bluffs | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **stop** | present | bluffs | | | | before contact | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | | 7 | **flap** | gerund | | | | | | | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 8 | **cool** | present | flapping ears | water | | | | | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=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:149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice.lesson:14`. **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, 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: [Myth check: are elephants scared of mi…, 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice/13/) - next →: [Myth check: are elephants scared of mi…, 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice/15/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice/)