---
title: Motorway verges are rarely mown, so they are full of voles; a kestre… — Birds of prey and owls · tree and pragmatics
description: Motorway verges are rarely mown, so they are full of voles; a kestrel flaps into the wind at the wind's own speed and keeps its head still to watch for voles, and it can see vole wee trails that shine in ultraviolet. Who acts: Owls, kestrel, head, vole wee trails. A sentence of the lesson «Birds of 
---

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# Birds of prey and owls, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Motorway verges are rarely mown, so they are full of voles; a kestrel flaps into the wind at the wind's own speed and keeps its head still to watch for voles, and it can see vole wee trails that shine in ultraviolet.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Owls, kestrel, head, vole wee trails · **What happens:** mown, be, flap, keep, watch, see · **To what, where:** Motorway verges, wind, head, vole wee trails, ultraviolet

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Birds of prey and owls» 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 (Owls, kestrel, head, vole wee trails), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:034-birds-of-prey-and-owls.lesson:5
# text = Motorway verges are rarely mown, so they are full of voles; a kestrel flaps into the wind at the wind's own speed and keeps its head still to watch for voles, and it can see vole wee trails that shine in ultraviolet.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 034-birds-of-prey-and-owls.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): R7-rel-agree ×3, R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Motorway	motorway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	verges	verge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=5:cop
4	rarely	rarely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	mown	mown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=0:root|HaikuPos=ADJ:JJ:Degree=Pos
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=5:conj
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	voles	vole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	kestrel	kestrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	flaps	flap	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	_
23	's	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	speed	speed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	keeps	keep	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
28	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	still	still	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=27:ccomp
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	voles	vole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	_
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
40	vole	vole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	compound	_	_
41	wee	wee	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	trails	trail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obj	_	_
43	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	44	nsubj	_	_
44	shine	shine	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	42	acl:relcl	_	_
45	in	in	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	ultraviolet	ultraviolet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	_
47	.	.	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 | **mown** | present · passive |  | Motorway verges |  |  |  | rarely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | Owls *= owl* |  |  |  |  | of voles; full *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **flap** | present | a kestrel |  |  | the wind at the wind's own speed |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent into wind=Recipient |
| 4 | **keep** | present | a kestrel *not said here* | kestrel's head |  |  | still |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 5 | **watch** | to-infinitive | a kestrel *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for voles | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for vole=Theme |
| 6 | **see** | can | head | vole wee trails |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer trail=Stimulus |
| 7 | **shine** | present | vole wee trails |  |  | ultraviolet |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ultraviolet=Location |

<!-- .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:034-birds-of-prey-and-owls.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): R7-rel-agree ×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/).

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