--- title: First, it rubs oil from a gland near its tail all over its feathers… — Ducks, geese and farm myths · tree and pragmatics description: First, it rubs oil from a gland near its tail all over its feathers with its beak, so water runs off like rain off a raincoat, which is where «like water off a duck's back» comes from, a saying for something, such as a telling-off, that has no effect on someone. Who acts: duck, water, raincoat, «. A --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths/1/) [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/) / [Ducks, geese and farm myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths/) / 1 # Ducks, geese and farm myths, sentence 1 First, it rubs oil from a gland near its tail all over its feathers with its beak, so water runs off like rain off a raincoat, which is where «like water off a duck's back» comes from, a saying for something, such as a telling-off, that has no effect on someone. **Who acts:** duck, water, raincoat, «, telling off · **What happens:** rub, run off, be, like off, come, have · **To what, where:** oil, gland, raincoat, water, effect, someone This is a sentence of the lesson «Ducks, geese and farm myths» 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 (duck, water, raincoat, «), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths.lesson:1 # text = First, it rubs oil from a gland near its tail all over its feathers with its beak, so water runs off like rain off a raincoat, which is where «like water off a duck's back» comes from, a saying for something, such as a telling-off, that has no effect on someone. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths.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 ×3 1 First first ADV RB NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 4 advmod _ _ 2 , , PUNCT , _ 1 punct _ _ 3 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 4 rubs rub VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 oil oil NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 6 from from ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 7 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 8 gland gland NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ _ 9 near near ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 11 nmod:poss _ _ 11 tail tail NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 nmod _ _ 12 all all ADV RB _ 15 advmod _ _ 13 over over ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 15 nmod:poss _ _ 15 feathers feather NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=8:nmod 16 with with ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 17 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 18 nmod:poss _ _ 18 beak beak NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 nmod _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 20 so so ADV RB _ 22 advmod _ _ 21 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nsubj _ _ 22 runs run VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 23 off off ADP RP _ 22 compound:prt _ _ 24 like like ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 25 rain rain NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 obl _ _ 26 off off ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 raincoat raincoat NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 obl _ _ 29 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 30 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 32 nsubj _ _ 31 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 32 cop _ _ 32 where where ADV WRB PronType=Rel 28 nmod _ _ 33 « « PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 34 nsubj _ _ 34 like like VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 32 advcl:relcl _ _ 35 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obj _ _ 36 off off ADP RP _ 34 compound:prt _ _ 37 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 38 duck duck NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 nmod:poss _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=42:nsubj 39 's 's PART POS _ 38 case _ _ 40 back back NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 nmod _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=41:advmod|HaikuPos=ADV:RB:_ 41 » » ADV RB _ 42 advmod _ _ 42 comes come VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 34 ccomp _ _ 43 from from ADP IN _ 42 obl _ _ 44 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 45 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 46 det _ _ 46 saying say NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 appos _ _ 47 for for ADP IN _ 48 case _ _ 48 something something PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 46 nmod _ _ 49 , , PUNCT , _ 55 punct _ _ 50 such such ADJ JJ Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP 55 case _ _ 51 as as ADP IN _ 50 fixed _ _ 52 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 55 det _ _ 53 telling telling NOUN NN Number=Sing 55 compound _ _ 54 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 53 punct _ _ 55 off off NOUN NN Number=Sing 48 conj _ _ 56 , , PUNCT , _ 58 punct _ _ 57 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 58 nsubj _ _ 58 has have VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 55 acl:relcl _ _ 59 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 60 det _ _ 60 effect effect NOUN NN Number=Sing 58 obj _ _ 61 on on ADP IN _ 62 case _ _ 62 someone someone PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 60 nmod _ _ 63 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **rub** | present | duck | oil | | a gland near duck's tail | | over duck's feathers with duck's beak; first *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent oil=Theme over feather=Destination | | 2 | **run off** | present | water | | | a raincoat | | like rain | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme off raincoat=Trajectory | | 3 | **is** | present | a raincoat | | | | | where *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **like off** *in a quote* | present | « | water a duck's back | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **come** | present | « *not said here* | | | | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 6 | **have** | present | a telling off | no effect | | someone | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=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:213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths.lesson:1`. **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 ×3. **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: [Ducks, geese and farm myths, 0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths/0/) - next →: [Ducks, geese and farm myths, 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths/2/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths/)