---
title: Scientists often have only a few bones, so they compare them with li… — Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuch… · tree and pragmatics
description: Scientists often have only a few bones, so they compare them with living animals to guess the size, and they honestly say «we don't know» when the clues run out. Who acts: Scientists, we, clues. A sentence of the lesson «Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and giant torto
---

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# Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and giant tortoises, sentence 5

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Scientists often have only a few bones, so they compare them with living animals to guess the size, and they honestly say «we don't know» when the clues run out.

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**Who acts:** Scientists, we, clues · **What happens:** have, compare, guess, say, not know, run out · **To what, where:** few bones, bones, size · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and giant tortoises» 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 (Scientists, we, clues), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises.lesson:5
# text = Scientists often have only a few bones, so they compare them with living animals to guess the size, and they honestly say «we don't know» when the clues run out.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises.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 ×1, R8-pos-agree ×3
1	Scientists	scientist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	often	often	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	compare	compare	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=3:parataxis|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	living	live	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	honestly	honestly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=3:parataxis
25	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=29:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:,:_
26	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	ccomp	_	_
30	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=29:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:,:_
31	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	clues	clue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	run	run	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
35	out	out	ADP	RP	_	34	compound:prt	_	_
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed polarity=none

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | Scientists | a few bones |  |  |  | often *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient |
| 2 | **compare** | present | Scientists *= scientist* | bones *= bone* |  |  |  | with living animals | vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient with animal=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **guess** | to-infinitive | Scientists *= scientist* *not said here* | the size |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent size=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Scientists *= scientist* |  |  |  |  | honestly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | present · do-support | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **run out** | present | the clues |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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:383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises.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 ×1, R8-pos-agree ×3. **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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