Test 7 · ★★ · Birds of every kind: penguins, ostriches, parrots, humming…

Your mate says a parrot just makes noises and can't mean anything. What would Alex the African grey say about that?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, parrot, African grey · What happens: say, make, not mean · To what, where: noises, anything · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 7 · ★★ of lesson 35 «Birds of every kind: penguins, ostriches, parrots, hummingbirds, songbirds, crows» 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

Sentence 1: Your mate says a parrot just makes noises and can't mean anything.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 parrot	det
5	parrot	parrot	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 makes	nsubj
6	just	just	ADV	_	7 makes	advmod
7	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 says	ccomp
8	noises	noise	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 makes	obj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 mean	cc
10	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 mean	aux
11	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 mean	advmod
12	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 makes	conj
13	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	12 mean	obj
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Your mate		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	make	present	a parrot	noises	vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent noise=Product
3	not mean	can	a parrot not said here	anything	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Topic

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: What would Alex the African grey say about that?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 Alex	aux
3	Alex	Alex	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 grey	det
5	African	African	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 grey	amod
6	grey	grey	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 say	nsubj
7	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	acl:relcl
8	about	about	ADP	_	9 that	case
9	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 say	obl
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	the African grey						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

He only copied the last word he heard

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 copied	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 copied	advmod
3	copied	copy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 word	det
5	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 word	amod
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 copied	obj
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 heard	nsubj
8	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 word	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	copy	past	He	the last word					vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
2	hear	past	he	the last word not said here					vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus

Option 2

He could talk about anything, just like a person, and tell stories

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 talk	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 talk	aux
3	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	about	about	ADP	_	5 anything	case
5	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	3 talk	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 person	punct
7	just	just	ADV	_	10 person	advmod
8	like	like	ADP	_	10 person	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 person	det
10	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 talk	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 tell	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 tell	cc
13	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 talk	conj
14	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 tell	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	could	He					about anything; like a person	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about anything=Topic
2	tell speech: assert	infinitive	He not said here	stories					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He could name colours and shapes, so some parrots understand words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 name	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 name	aux
3	name	name	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	colours	colour	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 name	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 shapes	cc
6	shapes	shape	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 colours	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 understand	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	11 understand	advmod
9	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	10 parrots	det
10	parrots	parrot	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 understand	nsubj
11	understand	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 name	parataxis
12	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 understand	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	name	could	He	colours and shapes					vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colour=Theme
2	understand	present	some parrots	words					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus

Option 4

He could only whistle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 whistle	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 whistle	aux
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 whistle	advmod
4	whistle	whistle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	whistle	could	He						vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/35-birds-of-every-kind/t7/