Test 8 · ★ · The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 2: Wayfarers All…

What would the Rat probably have said about the South at the start of the book?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Rat · What happens: say, start · To what, where: start, book · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 57 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 2: Wayfarers All (the swallows and the call of the South)» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 said	obj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 said	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Rat	det
4	Rat	Rat	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 said	nsubj
5	probably	probably	ADV	_	7 said	advmod
6	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 said	aux
7	said	say	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
8	about	about	ADP	_	10 South	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 South	det
10	South	South	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 said	obl
11	at	at	ADP	_	13 start	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 start	det
13	start	start	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 said	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 book	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 book	det
16	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 start	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 said	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would · perfect	the Rat			the start of the book		about the South; probably property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic
2	start			the book					nom start «event transitive»: of=patient

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

He would call it a dull distant place

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 call	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 call	aux
3	call	call	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 call	obj
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 place	det
6	dull	dull	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 place	amod
7	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 place	amod
8	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 call	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	call	would	He	it					vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient

Option 2

He wanted to visit

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	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 visit	mark
4	visit	visit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	He						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	visit not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here						vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It doesn't matter; he never wants to go

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	4 matter	nsubj
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 matter	aux
3	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 matter	advmod
4	matter	matter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	;	;	PUNCT	_	8 wants	punct
6	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 wants	nsubj
7	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	8 wants	advmod
8	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 matter	conj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 go	mark
10	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 wants	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	not matter	present · do-support	It	vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
2	not want	present	he	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	go not said to happen	to-infinitive	he not said here	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He would say it means nothing to him

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 say	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 say	aux
3	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 means	nsubj
5	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 say	ccomp
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 means	obj
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 him	case
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 nothing	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	mean	present	it	nothing				to him = he	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot nothing=Theme to he=Attribute

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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