Test 4 · ★★ · Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 2: The Mock Turtle's…

Ava from Texas: «I'm fixin' to say Tortoise was a real tortoise.» (fixin' to = about to) Put it right.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: I, Tortoise · What happens: fixin, say, be, put · To what, where: real tortoise, fixin · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 4 · ★★ of lesson 18 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 2: The Mock Turtle's Story (school under the sea)» 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: Ava from Texas: «I'm fixin' to say Tortoise was a real tortoise.»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ava	Ava	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 fixin	vocative
2	from	from	ADP	_	3 Texas	case
3	Texas	Texas	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Ava	nmod
4	:	:	PUNCT	_	1 Ava	punct
5	«	«	PUNCT	_	8 fixin	punct
6	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	8 fixin	nsubj
7	'm	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 fixin	aux
8	fixin	fixin	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
9	'	'	PUNCT	_	8 fixin	punct
10	to	to	PART	_	11 say	mark
11	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 fixin	xcomp
12	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 tortoise	nsubj
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 tortoise	cop
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 tortoise	det
15	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 tortoise	amod
16	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 say	ccomp
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 fixin	punct
18	»	»	PUNCT	_	8 fixin	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	fixin in a quote	present · progressive	I		Ava from Texas vocative	tree rules
2	say speech: assert in a quote	to-infinitive	I not said here			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	is a in a quote	past	Tortoise	a real tortoise		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.

Sentence 2: (fixin' to = about to) Put it right.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	(	(	PUNCT	_	2 fixin	punct
2	fixin	fixin	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 =	nsubj
3	'	'	PUNCT	_	2 fixin	punct
4	to	to	PART	_	5 =	mark
5	=	=	SYM	_	9 Put	punct
6	about	about	SCONJ	_	9 Put	mark
7	to	to	ADP	_	6 about	fixed
8	)	)	PUNCT	_	6 about	punct
9	Put	put	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 Put	obj
11	right	right	ADV	_	9 Put	advmod
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 Put	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	put	imperative		fixin				right property	vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Goal

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

He was a tortoise

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 tortoise	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 tortoise	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 tortoise	det
4	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	He	a tortoise					tree rules

Option 2

He was slow

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 slow	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 slow	cop
3	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	He					slow property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He was an old Turtle, called Tortoise as a pun on «taught us»

The tree, 13 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	5 Turtle	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 Turtle	cop
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 Turtle	det
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 Turtle	amod
5	Turtle	turtle	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 called	punct
7	called	call	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 Turtle	acl
8	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 called	xcomp
9	as	as	ADP	_	11 pun	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 pun	det
11	pun	pun	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 called	obl
12	on	on	SCONJ	_	14 taught	mark
13	«	«	PUNCT	_	14 taught	punct
14	taught	teach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 pun	acl:relcl
15	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	14 taught	obj
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 Turtle	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past	He	a old Turtle			tree rules
2	call speech: assert	participle		a old Turtle not said here		as a pun	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	teach speech: other in a quote	past	a pun not said here		us		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent we=Recipient

Option 4

He was a tortoise, the pet from Texas, called Tortoise for fun

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 tortoise	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 tortoise	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 tortoise	det
4	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 pet	punct
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 pet	det
7	pet	pet	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tortoise	conj
8	from	from	ADP	_	9 Texas	case
9	Texas	Texas	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 pet	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 called	punct
11	called	call	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 tortoise	acl
12	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 called	xcomp
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 fun	case
14	fun	fun	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 called	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	He	a tortoise and the pet from Texas					tree rules
2	call	participle		a tortoise and the pet from Texas not said here				for fun	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S_INF»: agent=Agent for fun=Recipient

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/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/t4/