Test 9 · ★★ · Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 1: The Mock Turtle's…

«Just about as much right as pigs have to fly.» What does the Duchess mean?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: pigs, Duchess · What happens: have, fly, mean

This is test 9 · ★★ of lesson 17 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 1: The Mock Turtle's Story (the Duchess and her morals)» of the books 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: «Just about as much right as pigs have to fly.»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 right	punct
2	Just	just	ADV	_	6 right	advmod
3	about	about	ADV	_	6 right	advmod
4	as	as	ADV	_	6 right	advmod
5	much	much	ADV	_	6 right	advmod
6	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 have	mark
8	pigs	pig	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 have	nsubj
9	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 right	advcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 fly	mark
11	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 have	xcomp
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 right	punct
13	»	»	PUNCT	_	6 right	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have in a quote	present	pigs						tree rules
2	fly in a quote	to-infinitive	pigs not said here						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 does the Duchess mean?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 mean	obj
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 mean	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Duchess	det
4	Duchess	Duchess	PROPN	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	present · do-support	the Duchess						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic

The options

Option 1

Alice may think, but pigs cannot fly at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 think	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 think	aux
3	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 fly	punct
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 fly	cc
6	pigs	pig	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 fly	nsubj
7	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 fly	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 fly	advmod
9	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 think	conj
10	at	at	ADP	_	11 all	case
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 fly	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	may	Alice						vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not fly	can	pigs			all			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent at all=Location

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Alice has a right to think, as pigs have a right to swim

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 right	det
4	right	right	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 think	mark
6	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 right	acl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 have	punct
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 have	mark
9	pigs	pig	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 have	nsubj
10	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 has	parataxis
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 right	det
12	right	right	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 have	obj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 swim	mark
14	swim	swim	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 right	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	have	present	Alice	a right	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent right=Patient
2	think speech: other	to-infinitive	Alice not said here	a right not said here	vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	have	present	pigs	a right	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent right=Patient
4	swim	to-infinitive	pigs not said here	a right not said here	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Alice has no right to think at all, as pigs can't fly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 right	det
4	right	right	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 think	mark
6	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 right	acl
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 all	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 think	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 fly	punct
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 fly	mark
11	pigs	pig	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 fly	nsubj
12	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 fly	aux
13	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 fly	advmod
14	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 think	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	have	present	Alice	no right		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent right=Patient
2	think speech: other	to-infinitive	Alice not said here	no right not said here	all	vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	not fly	can	pigs			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Alice has very little right to think, since pigs can never fly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	very	very	ADV	_	4 little	advmod
4	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 right	amod
5	right	right	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 think	mark
7	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 right	acl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 fly	punct
9	since	since	SCONJ	_	13 fly	mark
10	pigs	pig	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 fly	nsubj
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 fly	aux
12	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	13 fly	advmod
13	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 think	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	have	present	Alice	little right	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent right=Patient
2	think speech: other	to-infinitive	Alice not said here	little right not said here	vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not fly	can	pigs		vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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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