---
title: It can swallow an egg bigger than its own head because its two lower… — Snakes and lizards · tree and pragmatics
description: It can swallow an egg bigger than its own head because its two lower jaw halves are joined by stretchy tissue, not because it «unhinges» its jaw, and it grows by shedding its whole skin, inside out like a sock pulled off. Who acts: smell, stretchy tissue. A sentence of the lesson «Snakes and lizards
---

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# Snakes and lizards, sentence 2

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It can swallow an egg bigger than its own head because its two lower jaw halves are joined by stretchy tissue, not because it «unhinges» its jaw, and it grows by shedding its whole skin, inside out like a sock pulled off.

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**Who acts:** smell, stretchy tissue · **What happens:** swallow, join, not unhinge, grow, shed, pull off · **To what, where:** egg, two lower jaw halves, jaw, whole skin, sock

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Snakes and lizards» 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 (smell, stretchy tissue), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:030-snakes-and-lizards.lesson:2
# text = It can swallow an egg bigger than its own head because its two lower jaw halves are joined by stretchy tissue, not because it «unhinges» its jaw, and it grows by shedding its whole skin, inside out like a sock pulled off.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 030-snakes-and-lizards.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): no change
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	swallow	swallow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
12	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
13	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
14	lower	low	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	amod	_	_
15	jaw	jaw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	halves	half	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	joined	join	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	stretchy	stretchy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	tissue	tissue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
24	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	_
27	unhinges	unhinge	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
28	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
29	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	jaw	jaw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	grows	grow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
35	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
36	shedding	shed	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	advcl	_	_
37	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
38	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	out	out	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
43	like	like	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	sock	sock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	_
46	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	45	acl	_	_
47	off	off	ADP	RP	_	46	compound:prt	_	_
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- 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 | **swallow** | can | smell | a egg |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Patient |
| 2 | **join** | present · passive | stretchy tissue | smell's two lower jaw halves |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **unhinge** *in a quote* | present | smell | smell's jaw |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jaw=Patient |
| 4 | **grow** | present | smell |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **shed** | gerund | smell *not said here* | smell's whole skin |  |  |  | out *property* | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location skin=Source |
| 6 | **pull off** | participle |  | a sock *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |

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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.

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**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:030-snakes-and-lizards.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): no change. **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/).

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