Exam question 3 · How animals talk

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the meowing of the domestic cat.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, meowing

This is exam question 3 of lesson 50 «How animals talk» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 meowing	det
11	meowing	meowing	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 cat	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 cat	det
14	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 cat	amod
15	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 meowing	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the meowing of the domestic cat		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus meowing=Experiencer

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 · ✓ the right answer

Adult cats seldom meow to one another, meowing chiefly to humans

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 cats	amod
2	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 meow	nsubj
3	seldom	seldom	ADV	_	4 meow	advmod
4	meow	meow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 one	case
6	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 meow	obl
7	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	6 one	fixed
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 meowing	punct
9	meowing	meow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 meow	advcl
10	chiefly	chiefly	ADV	_	9 meowing	advmod
11	to	to	ADP	_	12 humans	case
12	humans	human	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 meowing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	meow	present	Adult cats		one			seldom property	vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to one=Recipient
2	meow	gerund	Adult cats not said here		humans			chiefly property	vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to human=Recipient

Option 2

The meow is employed exclusively to warn of predators and other dangers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 meow	det
2	meow	meow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 employed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 employed	aux:pass
4	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	4 employed	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 warn	mark
7	warn	warn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 employed	advcl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 predators	case
9	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 warn	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 dangers	cc
11	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 dangers	amod
12	dangers	danger	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 predators	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	present · passive		the meow				exclusively property	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	warn speech: warn	to-infinitive						of predators and other dangers	vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent of predator=Topic

Option 3

The meow is produced only during sleep

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 meow	det
2	meow	meow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 produced	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 produced	aux:pass
4	produced	produce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	only	only	ADV	_	7 sleep	advmod
6	during	during	ADP	_	7 sleep	case
7	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 produced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce	present · passive		the meow			during sleep		vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Result

Option 4

Adult cats communicate with one another chiefly by means of the meow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 cats	amod
2	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 communicate	nsubj
3	communicate	communicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 chiefly	case
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 chiefly	nummod
6	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	5 one	fixed
7	chiefly	chiefly	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 communicate	obl
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 means	case
9	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 communicate	parataxis
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 meow	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 meow	det
12	meow	meow	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	communicate	present	Adult cats					with one chiefly	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V PP.co-agent PP.theme whether S»: agent=Agent with chiefly=Co-Agent
2	mean	present						of the meow	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: 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.

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