Test 4 · ★ · The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 4: Wayfarers All…

Why are «the garlic sang» and «the cheese lay down and cried» funny?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: garlic, cheese · What happens: be, lie down, cry

This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 59 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 4: Wayfarers All (the voyage and lunch by the road)» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 sang	advmod
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 sang	cop
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 sang	punct
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 garlic	det
5	garlic	garlic	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 sang	nsubj
6	sang	sing	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	»	»	PUNCT	_	6 sang	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 lay	cc
9	«	«	PUNCT	_	12 lay	punct
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 cheese	det
11	cheese	cheese	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 lay	nsubj
12	lay	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 sang	conj
13	down	down	ADV	_	12 lay	advmod
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 cried	cc
15	cried	cry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 lay	conj
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 cried	punct
17	funny	funny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 cried	xcomp
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 sang	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	the garlic	sing property	tree rules
2	lie down in a quote	past	the cheese	down property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	cry speech: express in a quote	past	the cheese not said here	funny property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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 · ← Mova's choice

Smells are told as though food could act

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Smells	smell	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 told	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 told	aux:pass
3	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	ExtPos=ADP	6 food	case
5	though	though	SCONJ	_	4 as	fixed
6	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 told	obl
7	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 act	aux
8	act	act	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 told	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	present · passive		Smells				as food	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	act not said to happen	could	Smells not said here						vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Smells are described as if food could sing and cry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Smells	smell	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 described	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 described	aux:pass
3	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 sing	mark
5	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 sing	mark
6	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sing	nsubj
7	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 sing	aux
8	sing	sing	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 described	ccomp
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 cry	cc
10	cry	cry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 sing	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	describe	present · passive		Smells	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute
2	sing speech: express a condition, not said to happen	could	food		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	cry speech: express	infinitive	food not said here		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

It is a joke about cooking

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 joke	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 joke	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 joke	det
4	joke	joke	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	about	about	ADP	_	6 cooking	case
6	cooking	cooking	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 joke	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a joke				about cooking	tree rules

Option 4

Food is shown as making sounds and tears

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shown	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 shown	aux:pass
3	shown	show	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	_	6 sounds	case
5	making	make	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 sounds	amod
6	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shown	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 tears	cc
8	tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 sounds	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present · passive		Food				as making sounds and tears	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
2	make	gerund							vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

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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