---
title: Male frogs and toads call to attract partners and tell rivals «this… — Frogs and toads near home: spawn, croaking choru… · tree and pragmatics
description: Male frogs and toads call to attract partners and tell rivals «this is my spot»; many puff up a vocal sac like a balloon to make the call louder, and natterjack toads are reported to be heard over a kilometre away, while common frogs purr quietly. Who acts: Male frogs, this, many, common frogs. A se
---

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# Frogs and toads near home: spawn, croaking choruses, toad crossings and the fire-bellied toad, sentence 9

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Male frogs and toads call to attract partners and tell rivals «this is my spot»; many puff up a vocal sac like a balloon to make the call louder, and natterjack toads are reported to be heard over a kilometre away, while common frogs purr quietly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Male frogs, this, many, common frogs · **What happens:** call, attract, tell, be, puff up, make · **To what, where:** partners, rivals, spot, vocal sac, call, natterjack toads · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Frogs and toads near home: spawn, croaking choruses, toad crossings and the fire-bellied toad» 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 (Male frogs, this, many, common frogs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:309-frogs-and-toads-near-home-spawn-croaking-choruses-toad-crossings-and-the-fire-bellied-toad.lesson:9
# text = Male frogs and toads call to attract partners and tell rivals «this is my spot»; many puff up a vocal sac like a balloon to make the call louder, and natterjack toads are reported to be heard over a kilometre away, while common frogs purr quietly.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 309-frogs-and-toads-near-home-spawn-croaking-choruses-toad-crossings-and-the-fire-bellied-toad.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 ×1
1	Male	male	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	toads	toad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
5	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	attract	attract	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=5:xcomp
8	partners	partner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
11	rivals	rival	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
12	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	_
13	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	_
17	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	nsubj	_	_
20	puff	puff	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	vocal	vocal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	sac	sac	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	balloon	balloon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=24:nmod
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	call	call	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	louder	loud	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	xcomp	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
35	natterjack	natterjack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	toads	toad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
37	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux:pass	_	_
38	reported	report	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
40	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	aux:pass	_	_
41	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	xcomp	_	_
42	over	over	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	kilometre	kilometre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=41:obl
45	away	away	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
47	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
48	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	nsubj	_	_
50	purr	purr	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
51	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	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 | **call** | present | Male frogs and toads |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **attract** | to-infinitive | Male frogs and toads *not said here* | partners |  |  |  |  | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent partner=Patient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | Male frogs and toads *not said here* | rivals |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent rival=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | this | my spot |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **puff up** | present | many | a vocal sac |  |  |  | like a balloon | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sac=Source |
| 6 | **make** | to-infinitive | many *not said here* | the call |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset call=Product |
| 7 | **report** | present · passive |  | natterjack toads |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **hear** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus» |
| 9 | **purr** | present | common frogs |  |  |  |  | quietly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

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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:309-frogs-and-toads-near-home-spawn-croaking-choruses-toad-crossings-and-the-fire-bellied-toad.lesson:9`.

**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 ×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/).

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