---
title: A wild beaver family on the River Otter in Devon was allowed to stay… — Conservation: how people help animals come back · tree and pragmatics
description: A wild beaver family on the River Otter in Devon was allowed to stay in 2020; beaver dams slow rivers, hold water in droughts, reduce flooding downstream and make ponds full of wildlife, so beavers are called ecosystem engineers: they change the land around them more than almost any animal but us. W
---

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# Conservation: how people help animals come back, sentence 8

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A wild beaver family on the River Otter in Devon was allowed to stay in 2020; beaver dams slow rivers, hold water in droughts, reduce flooding downstream and make ponds full of wildlife, so beavers are called ecosystem engineers: they change the land around them more than almost any animal but us.

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**Who acts:** wild beaver family, beaver dams, beavers · **What happens:** allow, stay, slow, hold, reduce, make · **To what, where:** wild beaver family, 2020, rivers, water, droughts, flooding · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Conservation: how people help animals come back» 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 (wild beaver family, beaver dams, beavers), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:078-conservation-animals-come-back.lesson:8
# text = A wild beaver family on the River Otter in Devon was allowed to stay in 2020; beaver dams slow rivers, hold water in droughts, reduce flooding downstream and make ponds full of wildlife, so beavers are called ecosystem engineers: they change the land around them more than almost any animal but us.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 078-conservation-animals-come-back.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 ×2
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	_	4	compound	_	_
4	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	River	River	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	Otter	Otter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Devon	Devon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	2020	2020	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	14	obl	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
18	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	_	19	compound	_	_
19	dams	dam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	slow	slow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
21	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	hold	hold	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
24	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	droughts	drought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	reduce	reduce	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
29	flooding	flood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
30	downstream	downstream	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
33	ponds	pond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	_
34	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	wildlife	wildlife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	so	so	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=41:mark|HaikuPos=SCONJ:IN:_
39	beavers	beaver	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nsubj:pass	_	_
40	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux:pass	_	_
41	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	_
42	ecosystem	ecosystem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	compound	_	_
43	engineers	engineer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	xcomp	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=41:obj
44	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	41	punct	_	_
45	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
46	change	change	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	conj	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
49	around	around	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obl	_	_
51	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	46	advmod	_	_
52	than	than	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	55	advmod	_	_
54	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	55	det	_	_
55	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
56	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
57	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	55	conj	_	_
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .note -->
No stored speech act for this sentence.

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **allow** | past · passive |  | a wild beaver family on the River Otter in Devon |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **stay** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a wild beaver family on the River Otter in Devon *not said here* |  |  | 2020 |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in 2020=Location |
| 3 | **slow** | present | beaver dams | rivers |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent river=Patient |
| 4 | **hold** | present | beaver dams *not said here* | water |  | droughts |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent water=Theme in drought=Location |
| 5 | **reduce** | present | beaver dams *not said here* | flooding |  |  |  | downstream *property* | vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer flood=Patient |
| 6 | **make** | present | beaver dams *not said here* | ponds |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset pond=Product |
| 7 | **call** | present · passive |  | beavers |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 8 | **change** | present | beavers *= beaver* | the land |  |  |  | around dams *= dam*; than any animal | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent land=Patient |

<!-- .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:078-conservation-animals-come-back.lesson:8`.

**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 ×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/).

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