Test 3 · ★★★ · How animals talk

«my parrot says hello so he knows what it means, obvs» What is the careful answer?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: parrot, it · What happens: say, know, mean, be · To what, where: careful answer · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 · ★★★ 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

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 parrot	nmod:poss
3	parrot	parrot	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	hello	hello	INTJ	_	4 says	obj
6	so	so	ADV	_	8 knows	advmod
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 knows	nsubj
8	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 says	ccomp
9	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 means	obj
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 means	nsubj
11	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 knows	ccomp
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 obvs	punct
13	obvs	obv	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 knows	parataxis
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 obvs	punct
15	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	19 answer	nsubj
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 answer	cop
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 answer	det
18	careful	careful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 answer	amod
19	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 knows	parataxis
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	present	my parrot		tree rules
2	know in a quote	present	parrot		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
3	mean in a quote	present	it		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic
4	be speech: assert	present		the careful answer	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

No parrot ever understands anything

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 parrot	det
2	parrot	parrot	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 understands	nsubj
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 understands	advmod
4	understands	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	4 understands	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand	present	no parrot	anything			ever		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus

Option 2

Parrots understand only if they speak quietly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Parrots	parrot	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 understand	nsubj
2	understand	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	6 speak	advmod
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 speak	mark
5	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 speak	nsubj
6	speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 understand	advcl
7	quietly	quietly	ADV	_	6 speak	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand	present	Parrots						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	speak speech: other a condition, not said to happen	present	Parrots = parrot					quietly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Every parrot understands all it says, they're as clever as people, obviously

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	2 parrot	det
2	parrot	parrot	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 understands	nsubj
3	understands	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	all	all	ADV	_	6 says	advmod
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 says	nsubj
6	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 understands	advcl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 clever	punct
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 clever	nsubj
9	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 clever	cop
10	as	as	ADV	_	11 clever	advmod
11	clever	clever	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 understands	conj
12	as	as	ADP	_	13 people	case
13	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 clever	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 understands	punct
15	obviously	obviously	ADV	_	3 understands	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	understand	present	every parrot	obviously property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	say speech: assert	present	parrot	all property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	is	present	they	as people; clever property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Most parrots just copy sounds; some, like Alex, understood some words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	2 parrots	amod
2	parrots	parrot	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 copy	nsubj
3	just	just	ADV	_	4 copy	advmod
4	copy	copy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 copy	obj
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	10 Alex	punct
7	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	10 Alex	nsubj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 Alex	punct
9	like	like	ADP	_	10 Alex	case
10	Alex	Alex	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 understood	nsubj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 Alex	punct
12	understood	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 copy	ccomp
13	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	14 words	det
14	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 understood	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	copy	present	Most parrots	sounds					tree rules
2	understand	past	Alex	some words					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus

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/t3/