--- title: Owl flight feathers have a comb-like front edge, a soft fringe at th… — How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pell… · tree and pragmatics description: Owl flight feathers have a comb-like front edge, a soft fringe at the back and a velvety surface, which break the air into tiny swirls and make almost no sound; engineers have copied them for quieter fans and wind turbines. Who acts: Owl flight feathers, velvety surface, engineers. A sentence of the --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths/7/) [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/) / [How owls work: silent wings, turning h…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths/) / 7 # How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and owl myths, sentence 7 Owl flight feathers have a comb-like front edge, a soft fringe at the back and a velvety surface, which break the air into tiny swirls and make almost no sound; engineers have copied them for quieter fans and wind turbines. **Who acts:** Owl flight feathers, velvety surface, engineers · **What happens:** have, break, make, copy · **To what, where:** like front edge, air, tiny swirls, sound, edges This is a sentence of the lesson «How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and owl 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 (Owl flight feathers, velvety surface, engineers), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths.lesson:7 # text = Owl flight feathers have a comb-like front edge, a soft fringe at the back and a velvety surface, which break the air into tiny swirls and make almost no sound; engineers have copied them for quieter fans and wind turbines. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-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 ×2, R7-rel-agree ×2 1 Owl owl NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 compound _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=2:compound 2 flight flight NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 compound _ _ 3 feathers feather NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 nsubj _ _ 4 have have VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 6 comb comb NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 compound _ _ 7 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 6 punct _ _ 8 like like ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 amod _ _ 9 front front ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 amod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=10:compound|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing 10 edge edge NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 11 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 12 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 13 soft soft ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 amod _ _ 14 fringe fringe NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 appos _ _ 15 at at ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 back back NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 nmod _ _ 18 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 19 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 20 velvety velvety ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 surface surface NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 conj _ _ 22 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 23 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 24 nsubj _ _ 24 break break VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 21 acl:relcl _ _ 25 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 air air NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obj _ _ 27 into into ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 28 tiny tiny ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 29 amod _ _ 29 swirls swirl NOUN NNS Number=Plur 24 obl _ _ 30 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 31 make make VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 24 conj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=29:conj|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:VerbForm=Inf 32 almost almost ADV RB _ 34 advmod _ _ 33 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 34 det _ _ 34 sound sound NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obj _ _ 35 ; ; PUNCT : _ 38 punct _ _ 36 engineers engineer NOUN NNS Number=Plur 38 nsubj _ _ 37 have have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 38 aux _ _ 38 copied copy VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 4 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=4:conj 39 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 38 obj _ _ 40 for for ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 quieter quiet ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 42 amod _ _ 42 fans fan NOUN NNS Number=Plur 38 obl _ _ 43 and and CCONJ CC _ 45 cc _ _ 44 wind wind NOUN NN Number=Sing 45 compound _ _ 45 turbines turbine NOUN NNS Number=Plur 42 conj _ _ 46 . . 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 | **have** | present | Owl flight feathers | a like front edge and a velvety surface | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent edge=Patient | | 2 | **break** | present | a velvety surface | the air | | | | into tiny swirls *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent air=Patient into swirl=Result | | 3 | **make** | present | a velvety surface *not said here* | no sound | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sound=Product | | 4 | **copy** | present · perfect | engineers | edges *= edge* | | | | for quieter fans and wind turbines | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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:302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths.lesson:7`. **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 ×2, R7-rel-agree ×2. **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: [How owls work: silent wings, turning h…, 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths/6/) - next →: [How owls work: silent wings, turning h…, 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths/8/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths/)