---
title: Skunks spray a very smelly oily liquid from glands under the tail at… — Defences: skunks, porcupines, hedgehogs and armour · tree and pragmatics
description: Skunks spray a very smelly oily liquid from glands under the tail at an attacker's face, but first warn by stamping, hissing and raising the tail, and spotted skunks even do a handstand; the smell can carry over a kilometre, and tomato juice does not really wash it off. Who acts: Skunks, spotted sku
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour/5/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [Defences: skunks, porcupines, hedgehog…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour/) / 5

# Defences: skunks, porcupines, hedgehogs and armour, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Skunks spray a very smelly oily liquid from glands under the tail at an attacker's face, but first warn by stamping, hissing and raising the tail, and spotted skunks even do a handstand; the smell can carry over a kilometre, and tomato juice does not really wash it off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Skunks, spotted skunks, smell, tomato juice · **What happens:** spray, warn, stamp, hiss, raise, spot · **To what, where:** smelly oily liquid, glands, tail, handstand, kilometre, smell

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Defences: skunks, porcupines, hedgehogs and armour» 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 (Skunks, spotted skunks, smell, tomato juice), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour.lesson:5
# text = Skunks spray a very smelly oily liquid from glands under the tail at an attacker's face, but first warn by stamping, hissing and raising the tail, and spotted skunks even do a handstand; the smell can carry over a kilometre, and tomato juice does not really wash it off.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour.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): R3-conj-first ×1, R5-strong ×3, R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Skunks	skunk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spray	spray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	smelly	smelly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	oily	oily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	liquid	liquid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	glands	gland	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
10	under	under	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	attacker	attacker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	's	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=7:nmod
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	21	advmod	_	_
21	warn	warn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
22	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	stamping	stamp	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	hissing	hiss	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	conj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	raising	raise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	conj	_	Agree=R3-conj-first|Haiku=25:conj
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	spotted	spot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	amod	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=33:amod|HaikuPos=ADJ:JJ:Degree=Pos
33	skunks	skunk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
34	even	even	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=23:conj|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:VerbForm=Inf
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	handstand	handstand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	42	punct	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	smell	smell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
41	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
43	over	over	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	kilometre	kilometre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	_
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
48	tomato	tomato	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	compound	_	_
49	juice	juice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj	_	_
50	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	53	aux	_	_
51	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	53	advmod	_	_
52	really	really	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
53	wash	wash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	conj	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=21:parataxis
54	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	obj	_	_
55	off	off	ADP	RP	_	53	compound:prt	_	_
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	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 | **spray** | present | Skunks | a smelly oily liquid |  | glands under the tail |  | at a attacker's face | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination-Conative»: agent=Agent liquid=Theme at face=Destination |
| 2 | **warn** *speech: warn* | infinitive | Skunks *not said here* |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **stamp** | gerund | Skunks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **hiss** | gerund | Skunks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **raise** | gerund | Skunks *not said here* | the tail |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Theme |
| 6 | **spot** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme» |
| 7 | **do** | present | spotted skunks | a handstand |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent handstand=Eventuality |
| 8 | **carry** | can | the smell |  |  | a kilometre |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **not** **wash off** | present · do-support | tomato juice | smell |  |  |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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:248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour.lesson:5`.

**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): R3-conj-first ×1, R5-strong ×3, 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/).

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Defences: skunks, porcupines, hedgehog…, 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour/4/)
- next →: [Defences: skunks, porcupines, hedgehog…, 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour/7/)
- ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour/)