Test 11 · ★★★ · How animals talk

A cat purrs loudly at the vet with a hurt paw. What could the purr mean?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: cat, purr · What happens: purr, mean · To what, where: vet

This is test 11 · ★★★ of lesson 50 «How animals talk» 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: A cat purrs loudly at the vet with a hurt paw.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purrs	nsubj
3	purrs	purr	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	3 purrs	advmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 vet	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 vet	det
7	vet	vet	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purrs	obl
8	with	with	ADP	_	11 paw	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 paw	det
10	hurt	hurt	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 paw	compound
11	paw	paw	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 vet	nmod
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 purrs	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purr	present	a cat			the vet with a hurt paw		loudly property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at vet=Location

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 could the purr mean?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 mean	obj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 mean	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purr	det
4	purr	purr	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 mean	nsubj
5	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 mean	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	could	the purr						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic

The options

Option 1

Purring heals any wound instantly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Purring	purr	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 heals	nsubj
2	heals	heal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	4 wound	det
4	wound	wound	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 heals	obj
5	instantly	instantly	ADV	_	2 heals	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purr	gerund							vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	heal	present		any wound				instantly property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wound=Patient

Option 2

It means the paw does not hurt at all and the cat is perfectly happy

The tree, 15 words

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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 paw	det
4	paw	paw	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hurt	nsubj
5	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 hurt	aux
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 hurt	advmod
7	hurt	hurt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 means	ccomp
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 all	case
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 hurt	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 happy	cc
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 cat	det
12	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 happy	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 happy	cop
14	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	_	15 happy	advmod
15	happy	happy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 means	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	not hurt	present · do-support	the paw	all		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
3	is	present	the cat		happy, perfectly property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Cats sometimes purr when hurt or unwell, not only when happy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 purr	nsubj
2	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	3 purr	advmod
3	purr	purr	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	5 hurt	advmod
5	hurt	hurt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 purr	advcl
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 unwell	cc
7	unwell	unwell	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 hurt	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 happy	punct
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 happy	advmod
10	only	only	ADV	_	12 happy	advmod
11	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	12 happy	advmod
12	happy	happy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 purr	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purr	present	Cats					sometimes property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	hurt	participle	Cats not said here						vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4

It means the cat is angry at the vet

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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cat	det
4	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 angry	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 angry	cop
6	angry	angry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 means	ccomp
7	at	at	ADP	_	9 vet	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 vet	det
9	vet	vet	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 angry	obl

#	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	the cat			the vet		angry property	tree rules

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/50-how-animals-talk/t11/