Test 9 · ★ · Reading a dog: tails, play bows, growls and staying safe

«his fur's all spiky on his back, he's gonna kill us» What is closer to the truth?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: fur, he, spiky · What happens: be · To what, where: back

This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 194 «Reading a dog: tails, play bows, growls and staying safe» of the biology 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 spiky	punct
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 fur	nmod:poss
3	fur	fur	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spiky	nsubj
4	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 spiky	cop
5	all	all	ADV	_	6 spiky	advmod
6	spiky	spiky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 closer	nsubj
7	on	on	ADP	_	9 back	case
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 back	nmod:poss
9	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spiky	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 kill	punct
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 kill	nsubj
12	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 kill	cop
13	gonna	gonna	PART	_	14 kill	mark
14	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 spiky	conj
15	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	14 kill	obj
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	6 spiky	punct
17	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	19 closer	nsubj
18	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 closer	cop
19	closer	close	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
20	to	to	ADP	_	22 truth	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 truth	det
22	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 closer	obl
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	19 closer	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	his fur	his back	all, spiky property	tree rules
2	is in a quote	present	he		kill property	tree rules
3	is	present	spiky		to the truth; close property	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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

It always means an attack is coming

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 means	nsubj
2	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	3 means	advmod
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 attack	det
5	attack	attack	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 coming	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 coming	aux
7	coming	come	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 means	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It					always property	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	come	present · progressive	a attack						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Raised hackles mean he is very worked up, not always angry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Raised	raise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 hackles	amod
2	hackles	hackles	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 mean	nsubj
3	mean	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 worked	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 worked	aux:pass
6	very	very	ADV	_	7 worked	advmod
7	worked	work	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 mean	ccomp
8	up	up	ADP	_	7 worked	compound:prt
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 angry	punct
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 angry	advmod
11	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	12 angry	advmod
12	angry	angry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 mean	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	raise	participle			vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	mean	present	Raised hackles		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	work up	present · passive		he	vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: subject=Material

Option 3

It means he is cold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 cold	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 cold	cop
5	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 means	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	he					cold property	tree rules

Option 4

It means he just had a wash

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 had	nsubj
4	just	just	ADV	_	5 had	advmod
5	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 means	ccomp
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 wash	det
7	wash	wash	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	have	past	he	a wash					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wash=Patient

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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