Test 3 · Owls of the world: barn owls, eagle owls, elf owls and bur…

«my mate says the shriek from the church tower is a ghost, swear down» What is the truth?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, shriek · What happens: say, be, swear down · To what, where: ghost, truth · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 of lesson 301 «Owls of the world: barn owls, eagle owls, elf owls and burrowing owls» 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	_	4 says	punct
2	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 mate	nmod:poss
3	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 shriek	det
6	shriek	shriek	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 ghost	nsubj
7	from	from	ADP	_	10 tower	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 tower	det
9	church	church	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 tower	compound
10	tower	tower	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 shriek	nmod
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 ghost	cop
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 ghost	det
13	ghost	ghost	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	ccomp
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 swear	punct
15	swear	swear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 says	ccomp
16	down	down	ADP	_	15 swear	compound:prt
17	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 swear	punct
18	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	21 truth	nsubj
19	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 truth	cop
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 truth	det
21	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 swear	parataxis
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	present	my mate		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is a in a quote	present	the shriek from the church tower	a ghost	tree rules
3	swear down in a quote	infinitive			vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	is a	present		the truth	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

Owls only hoot, so it must be a ghost

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 hoot	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 hoot	advmod
3	hoot	hoot	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 ghost	punct
5	so	so	ADV	_	10 ghost	advmod
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 ghost	nsubj
7	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 ghost	aux
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 ghost	cop
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 ghost	det
10	ghost	ghost	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hoot	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hoot	present	Owls						vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is a	must	it	a ghost					tree rules

Option 2

Only bats shriek at night, so it must be a bat in the tower

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	2 bats	advmod
2	bats	bat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shriek	nsubj
3	shriek	shriek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 night	case
5	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shriek	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 bat	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	12 bat	advmod
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 bat	nsubj
9	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 bat	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 bat	cop
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 bat	det
12	bat	bat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shriek	obl
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 tower	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 tower	det
15	tower	tower	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 bat	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shriek	present	bats				night		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is a	must	it	a bat		the tower			tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It is very likely a barn owl, which shrieks instead of hooting

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	4 likely	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 likely	cop
3	very	very	ADV	_	4 likely	advmod
4	likely	likely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 owl	det
6	barn	barn	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 owl	compound
7	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 likely	nsubj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 shrieks	punct
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 shrieks	nsubj
10	shrieks	shriek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 owl	acl:relcl
11	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=SCONJ	13 hooting	mark
12	of	of	ADP	_	11 instead	fixed
13	hooting	hoot	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 shrieks	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	It	likely property	tree rules
2	shriek	present	a barn owl		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	hoot	gerund	a barn owl not said here		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Ghosts really live in church towers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ghosts	ghost	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 live	nsubj
2	really	really	ADV	_	3 live	advmod
3	live	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 towers	case
5	church	church	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 towers	compound
6	towers	tower	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 live	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	present	Ghosts			church towers			vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in tower=Location

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/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/t3/