--- title: The opossum is a marsupial, like a kangaroo: its babies grow in a po… — Raccoons, opossums and skunks · tree and pragmatics description: The opossum is a marsupial, like a kangaroo: its babies grow in a pouch and then ride on their mother's back, and when it is badly frightened it falls down, goes stiff and gives off a nasty smell, which is called playing possum. Who acts: opossum, babies. A sentence of the lesson «Raccoons, opossums --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/2/) [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/) / [Raccoons, opossums and skunks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/) / 2 # Raccoons, opossums and skunks, sentence 2 The opossum is a marsupial, like a kangaroo: its babies grow in a pouch and then ride on their mother's back, and when it is badly frightened it falls down, goes stiff and gives off a nasty smell, which is called playing possum. **Who acts:** opossum, babies · **What happens:** be, grow, ride, frighten, fall down, go · **To what, where:** marsupial, pouch, back, opossum, nasty smell, possum · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Raccoons, opossums and skunks» 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 (opossum, babies), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks.lesson:2 # text = The opossum is a marsupial, like a kangaroo: its babies grow in a pouch and then ride on their mother's back, and when it is badly frightened it falls down, goes stiff and gives off a nasty smell, which is called playing possum. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks.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, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 opossum opossum NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _ 3 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 4 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 marsupial marsupial NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 6 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 7 like like ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 8 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 kangaroo kangaroo NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 appos _ _ 10 : : PUNCT : _ 13 punct _ _ 11 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 12 nmod:poss _ _ 12 babies baby NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 nsubj _ _ 13 grow grow VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 conj _ _ 14 in in ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 15 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 pouch pouch NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obl _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 18 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 19 advmod _ _ 19 ride ride VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 13 conj _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=13:conj|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:VerbForm=Inf 20 on on ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 21 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 22 nmod:poss _ _ 22 mother mother NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 nmod:poss _ _ 23 's 's PART POS _ 22 case _ _ 24 back back NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obl _ _ 25 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 26 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 27 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 31 advmod _ _ 28 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj:pass _ _ 29 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 31 aux:pass _ _ 30 badly badly ADV RB Degree=Pos 31 advmod _ _ 31 frightened frighten VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 33 advcl _ _ 32 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 33 falls fall VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 parataxis _ _ 34 down down ADP RP _ 33 compound:prt _ _ 35 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 36 goes go VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 33 conj _ _ 37 stiff stiff ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 36 xcomp _ _ 38 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 39 gives give VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 33 conj _ _ 40 off off ADP RP _ 39 compound:prt _ _ 41 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 42 nasty nasty ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ _ 43 smell smell NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obj _ _ 44 , , PUNCT , _ 47 punct _ _ 45 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 47 nsubj:pass _ _ 46 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 47 aux:pass _ _ 47 called call VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 43 acl:relcl _ _ 48 playing play VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 47 xcomp _ _ 49 possum possum NOUN NN Number=Sing 48 obj _ _ 50 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=33:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | present | the opossum | a marsupial | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **grow** | present | opossum's babies | | | a pouch | | | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in pouch=Location | | 3 | **ride** | present | opossum's babies *not said here* | | | babies's mother's back | then | | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **frighten** | present · passive | | opossum | | | | badly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer | | 5 | **fall down** | present | opossum | | | | | | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 6 | **go** | present | opossum *not said here* | | | | | stiff *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 7 | **give off** | present | opossum *not said here* | a nasty smell | | | | | vn substance\_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source smell=Theme | | 8 | **call** | present · passive | | a nasty smell | | | | | tree rules | | 9 | **play** | gerund | | possum | | | | | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent possum=Theme | 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:224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks.lesson:2`. **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, 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/). - ← previous: [Raccoons, opossums and skunks, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/1/) - next →: [Raccoons, opossums and skunks, 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/3/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/)