Exam question 4 · The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wil…

State which sex holds authority within a clan of spotted hyenas.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: State · What happens: hold, spot · To what, where: authority

This is exam question 4 of lesson 102 «The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wild dogs and hyenas» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	State	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 holds	nsubj
2	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	3 sex	det
3	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	nmod
4	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	authority	authority	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 holds	obj
6	within	within	ADP	_	8 clan	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 clan	det
8	clan	clan	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 holds	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 hyenas	case
10	spotted	spot	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 hyenas	amod
11	hyenas	hyena	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 clan	nmod
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 holds	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	present	State which sex	authority				within a clan of spotted hyenas	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent authority=Theme
2	spot	participle							vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme»

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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Neither, the clan having no order of rank

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Neither	neither	ADV	_	5 having	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Neither	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 clan	det
4	clan	clan	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 having	nsubj
5	having	have	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 order	det
7	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 having	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 rank	case
9	rank	rank	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 order	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	gerund	the clan	no order of rank				neither property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent order=Patient
2	order			rank					nom order «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

An adopted lion of either sex

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 lion	det
2	adopted	adopt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 lion	amod
3	lion	lion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 sex	case
5	either	either	DET	PronType=Ind	6 sex	det
6	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	adopt	participle							vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The females, which exceed the males in size

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 females	det
2	females	female	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 exceed	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 exceed	punct
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 exceed	nsubj
5	exceed	exceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 males	det
7	males	male	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 exceed	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 size	case
9	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 exceed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exceed	present	the females	the males				in size	vn exceed-90 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot male=Theme in size=Attribute

Option 4

The males, which exceed the females in size

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 males	det
2	males	male	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 exceed	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 exceed	punct
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 exceed	nsubj
5	exceed	exceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 females	det
7	females	female	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 exceed	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 size	case
9	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 exceed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exceed	present	the males	the females				in size	vn exceed-90 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot female=Theme in size=Attribute

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.

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