Exam question 4 · Animal minds: clever crows, ravens, jays and parrots

Ascertain the reason for which a domesticated parrot imitates human speech.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, domesticated parrot · What happens: ascertain, imitate · To what, where: reason, human speech

This is exam question 4 of lesson 233 «Animal minds: clever crows, ravens, jays and parrots» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 imitates	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 parrot	det
7	domesticated	domesticated	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 parrot	amod
8	parrot	parrot	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 imitates	nsubj
9	imitates	imitate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
10	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 speech	amod
11	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 imitates	obj
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	imitate	present	a domesticated parrot	human speech				for the reason	vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent speech=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

It is incapable of producing natural calls

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 incapable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 producing	mark
5	producing	produce	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 incapable	advcl
6	natural	natural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 calls	amod
7	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 producing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					incapable property	tree rules
2	produce	gerund		natural calls					vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent call=Result

Option 2

It comprehends the full meaning of every utterance

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 comprehends	nsubj
2	comprehends	comprehend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 meaning	det
4	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 meaning	amod
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 comprehends	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 utterance	case
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 utterance	det
8	utterance	utterance	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 meaning	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	comprehend	present	It	the full meaning of every utterance					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer meaning=Stimulus
2	mean			every utterance					nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It imitates only words of a discourteous character

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 imitates	nsubj
2	imitates	imitate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 words	advmod
4	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 imitates	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 character	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 character	det
7	discourteous	discourteous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 character	amod
8	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 words	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	imitate	present	It	words of a discourteous character					vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
2	word			a discourteous character					nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It treats the members of the household as its flock

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 treats	nsubj
2	treats	treat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 members	det
4	members	member	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 treats	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 household	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 household	det
7	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 members	nmod
8	as	as	ADP	_	10 flock	case
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 flock	nmod:poss
10	flock	flock	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 treats	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	treat	present	It	the members of the household				as household's flock	vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent member=Theme as flock=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/233-animal-minds-clever-crows-ravens-jays-and-parrots/e4/