--- title: An old idea said giraffes stretched their necks to reach high leaves… — Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks · tree and pragmatics description: An old idea said giraffes stretched their necks to reach high leaves and then passed the longer necks to their babies, but that is wrong: stretching your body does not change the DNA you pass on, just as a weightlifter's babies are not born with big muscles. Who acts: old idea, giraffes, that, stret --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/0/) [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/) / [Evolution: why giraffes really have lo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/) / 0 # Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks, sentence 0 An old idea said giraffes stretched their necks to reach high leaves and then passed the longer necks to their babies, but that is wrong: stretching your body does not change the DNA you pass on, just as a weightlifter's babies are not born with big muscles. **Who acts:** old idea, giraffes, that, stretching, you · **What happens:** say, stretch, reach, pass, be, not change · **To what, where:** necks, high leaves, longer necks, babies, body, DNA · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks» 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 (old idea, giraffes, that, stretching), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks.lesson:0 # text = An old idea said giraffes stretched their necks to reach high leaves and then passed the longer necks to their babies, but that is wrong: stretching your body does not change the DNA you pass on, just as a weightlifter's babies are not born with big muscles. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks.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 3 det _ _ 2 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 idea idea NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 giraffes giraffe NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 nsubj _ _ 6 stretched stretch VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 ccomp _ _ 7 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 8 nmod:poss _ _ 8 necks neck NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 obj _ _ 9 to to PART TO _ 10 mark _ _ 10 reach reach VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 6 advcl _ _ 11 high high ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 12 amod _ _ 12 leaves leaf NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 obj _ _ 13 and and CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 14 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 15 advmod _ _ 15 passed pass VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 17 longer long ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 18 amod _ _ 18 necks neck NOUN NNS Number=Plur 15 obj _ _ 19 to to ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 20 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 21 nmod:poss _ _ 21 babies baby NOUN NNS Number=Plur 15 obl _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=18:nmod 22 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ Agree=R2-punct-next|Haiku=4:punct 23 but but CCONJ CC _ 26 cc _ _ 24 that that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 26 nsubj _ _ 25 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 26 cop _ _ 26 wrong wrong ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 conj _ _ 27 : : PUNCT : _ 33 punct _ _ 28 stretching stretch VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 33 csubj _ _ 29 your your PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 30 nmod:poss _ _ 30 body body NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obj _ _ 31 does do AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 33 aux _ _ 32 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 33 advmod _ _ 33 change change VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 26 parataxis _ _ 34 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 35 DNA DNA NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obj _ _ 36 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 37 nsubj _ _ 37 pass pass VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 35 acl:relcl _ _ 38 on on ADP RP _ 37 compound:prt _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=37:advmod|HaikuPos=ADV:RB:_ 39 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 40 just just ADV RB _ 48 advmod _ _ 41 as as SCONJ IN _ 48 mark _ _ 42 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 43 weightlifter weightlifter NOUN NN Number=Sing 45 nmod:poss _ _ 44 's 's PART POS _ 43 case _ _ 45 babies baby NOUN NNS Number=Plur 48 nsubj:pass _ _ 46 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 48 aux:pass _ _ 47 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 48 advmod _ _ 48 born bear VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 33 advcl _ _ 49 with with ADP IN _ 51 case _ _ 50 big big ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 51 amod _ _ 51 muscles muscle NOUN NNS Number=Plur 48 obl _ _ 52 . . 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 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a old idea | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 2 | **stretch** | past | giraffes | giraffes's necks | | | | | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent neck=Patient | | 3 | **reach** | to-infinitive | giraffes *not said here* | high leaves | | | | | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent leaf=Theme | | 4 | **pass** | past | giraffes *not said here* | the longer necks | giraffes's babies | | then | | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent neck=Theme to baby=Recipient | | 5 | **is** | present | that | | | | | wrong *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **stretch** | gerund | | your body | | | | | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent body=Patient | | 7 | **not** **change** | present · do-support | stretching | the DNA | | | | | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dna=Patient | | 8 | **pass on** | present | you | the DNA *not said here* | | | | | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dna=Theme | | 9 | **not** **bear** | present · passive | | a weightlifter's babies | | | | with big muscles | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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:278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks.lesson:0`. **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: [DNA simply: the recipe in every cell, 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/17/) - next →: [Evolution: why giraffes really have lo…, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/1/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/)