Test 11 · ★ · Police, courts and prison
Overheard: "Sod the police, if I find who nicked my bike I'll sort them myself." Why do we have courts instead?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: I, we · What happens: overhear, sod, find, nick, sort, have · To what, where: police, bike, courts · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 30 «Police, courts and prison» of the adult life course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.
The question
Sentence 1: Overheard: "Sod the police, if I find who nicked my bike I'll sort them myself."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Overheard | overhear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 2 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 4 Sod | punct |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 Sod | punct |
| 4 | Sod | sod | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 1 Overheard | parataxis |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 police | det |
| 6 | police | police | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 Sod | obj |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 find | punct |
| 8 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 10 find | mark |
| 9 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 10 find | nsubj |
| 10 | find | find | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 Sod | conj |
| 11 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 12 nicked | nsubj |
| 12 | nicked | nick | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 find | ccomp |
| 13 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 bike | nmod:poss |
| 14 | bike | bike | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 nicked | obj |
| 15 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 17 sort | nsubj |
| 16 | 'll | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 17 sort | aux |
| 17 | sort | sort | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 nicked | conj |
| 18 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 sort | obj |
| 19 | myself | myself | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 17 sort | obj |
| 20 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 Sod | punct |
| 21 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 Sod | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | overhear | participle | tree rules | ||||||
| 2 | sod in a quote | infinitive | the police | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent police=Destination | |||||
| 3 | find a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | present | I | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | nick in a quote | past | my bike | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bike=Patient | |||||
| 5 | sort in a quote | future | I | police | tree rules |
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.
Sentence 2: Why do we have courts instead?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 have | advmod |
| 2 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 have | aux |
| 3 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 4 have | nsubj |
| 4 | have | have | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | courts | court | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 have | obj |
| 6 | instead | instead | ADV | _ | 4 have | advmod |
| 7 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 have | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | present · do-support | we | courts | instead property | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent court=Patient |
The options
Option 1
So the bike is returned faster
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | So | so | ADV | _ | 5 returned | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 bike | det |
| 3 | bike | bike | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 returned | nsubj:pass |
| 4 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 returned | aux:pass |
| 5 | returned | return | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | faster | fast | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 5 returned | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | return | present · passive | the bike | fast property | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice
So people can take revenge themselves
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | So | so | ADV | _ | 4 take | advmod |
| 2 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 take | nsubj |
| 3 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 take | aux |
| 4 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | revenge | revenge | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 take | obj |
| 6 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 4 take | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take | can | people | revenge | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument revenge=Theme themselves=Destination |
Option 3
So nobody ever gets punished
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | So | so | ADV | _ | 5 punished | advmod |
| 2 | nobody | nobody | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 5 punished | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | ever | ever | ADV | PronType=Ind | 2 nobody | advmod |
| 4 | gets | get | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 punished | aux:pass |
| 5 | punished | punish | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | punish | present · passive | nobody | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
So punishment is fair, not revenge
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | So | so | ADV | _ | 4 fair | advmod |
| 2 | punishment | punishment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 fair | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 fair | cop |
| 4 | fair | fair | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 revenge | punct |
| 6 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 7 revenge | advmod |
| 7 | revenge | revenge | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 fair | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | punishment | revenge obl; fair property | tree rules |
Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/adult-life/30-police-courts-and-prison/t11/