--- title: A meerkat sentry stands guard while the group digs for beetles, scor… — The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds · tree and pragmatics description: A meerkat sentry stands guard while the group digs for beetles, scorpions and grubs, and it gives different alarm calls for an eagle in the air and a jackal on the ground. Who acts: meerkat sentry, group. A sentence of the lesson «The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds» of the biology course --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/4-the-savanna/14/) [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/) / [The savanna: grass, trees and the grea…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/4-the-savanna/) / 14 # The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds, sentence 14 A meerkat sentry stands guard while the group digs for beetles, scorpions and grubs, and it gives different alarm calls for an eagle in the air and a jackal on the ground. **Who acts:** meerkat sentry, group · **What happens:** stand, dig, give · **To what, where:** guard, different alarm calls This is a sentence of the lesson «The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds» 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 (meerkat sentry, group), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:004-the-savanna.lesson:14 # text = A meerkat sentry stands guard while the group digs for beetles, scorpions and grubs, and it gives different alarm calls for an eagle in the air and a jackal on the ground. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 004-the-savanna.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 ×1 1 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 meerkat meerkat NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 compound _ _ 3 sentry sentry NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 stands stand VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 guard guard NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 6 while while SCONJ IN _ 9 mark _ _ 7 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 8 group group NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 9 digs dig VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 advcl _ _ 10 for for ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 11 beetles beetle NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 obl _ _ 12 , , PUNCT , _ 13 punct _ _ 13 scorpions scorpion NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 conj _ _ 14 and and CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 15 grubs grub NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 conj _ _ 16 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 18 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 19 gives give VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 20 different different ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 amod _ _ 21 alarm alarm NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 compound _ _ 22 calls call NOUN NNS Number=Plur 19 obj _ _ 23 for for ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 24 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 eagle eagle NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nmod _ _ 26 in in ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 air air NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 nmod _ _ 29 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 30 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 jackal jackal NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 conj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=22:conj 32 on on ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 ground ground NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 nmod _ _ 35 . . 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 | **stand** | present | a meerkat sentry | guard | | | | | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer guard=Stimulus | | 2 | **dig** | present | the group | | | | | for beetles and scorpions and grubs | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for beetle=Theme | | 3 | **give** | present | group | different alarm calls | | | | for a eagle in the air and a jackal on the ground | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent call=Theme for eagle=Asset | 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:004-the-savanna.lesson:14`. **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 ×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/). - ← previous: [The savanna: grass, trees and the grea…, 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/4-the-savanna/13/) - next →: [The savanna: grass, trees and the grea…, 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/4-the-savanna/15/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/4-the-savanna/)