Test 3 · ★★ · Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 2: Prizes, a long t…

Why is "It is a long tail, certainly" funny?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: It · What happens: be · To what, where: long tail

This is test 3 · ★★ of lesson 6 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 2: Prizes, a long tale, and Dinah again» 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	8 tail	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 tail	cop
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 tail	punct
4	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 tail	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 tail	cop
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 tail	det
7	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 tail	amod
8	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 funny	punct
10	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	12 funny	advmod
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 funny	punct
12	funny	funny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 tail	acl:relcl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 tail	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a in a quote	present	It	a long tail					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 · ← Mova's choice

The Mouse was really talking about a cat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Mouse	det
2	Mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 talking	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 talking	aux
4	really	really	ADV	_	5 talking	advmod
5	talking	talk	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	about	about	ADP	_	8 cat	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cat	det
8	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 talking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	past · progressive	the Mouse					about a cat	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about cat=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

"Tale" and "tail" sound the same but mean different things

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Tale	punct
2	Tale	Tale	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 sound	nsubj
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Tale	punct
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 tail	cc
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 tail	punct
6	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 Tale	conj
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 tail	punct
8	sound	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 same	det
10	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 sound	obj
11	but	but	CCONJ	_	12 mean	cc
12	mean	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 sound	conj
13	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 things	amod
14	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 mean	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sound	present	Tale and tail	the same					vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location same=Theme
2	mean	present	Tale and tail not said here	different things					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Topic

Option 3

The Mouse is a silly creature who loves to fidget

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Mouse	det
2	Mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 creature	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 creature	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 creature	det
5	silly	silly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 creature	amod
6	creature	creature	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 loves	nsubj
8	loves	love	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 creature	acl:relcl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 fidget	mark
10	fidget	fidget	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 loves	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	present	the Mouse	a silly creature	tree rules
2	love	present	a silly creature		vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
3	fidget not said to happen	to-infinitive	a silly creature not said here		vn body_internal_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

It is a pun on words

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

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

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/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/t3/