Exam question 1 · Homophones and near-homophones

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a homophone?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: homophone

This is exam question 1 of lesson 11 «Homophones and near-homophones» of the English course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 homophone	det
10	homophone	homophone	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		a homophone				of the following statements; accurately property	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 · ✓ the right answer

A word identical in pronunciation to another but distinct in spelling and meaning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 word	amod
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 pronunciation	case
5	pronunciation	pronunciation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identical	obl
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 another	case
7	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	3 identical	obl
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 distinct	cc
9	distinct	distinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 identical	conj
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 spelling	case
11	spelling	spelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 word	nmod
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 meaning	cc
13	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 spelling	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

A word employed exclusively in poetry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 word	acl
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 employed	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 poetry	case
6	poetry	poetry	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 employed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	participle		a word not said here		poetry		exclusively property	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

A word of which the spelling is identical when reversed, as in «level» or «noon»

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 which	case
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 identical	obl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 spelling	det
6	spelling	spelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 identical	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 identical	cop
8	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 level	amod
9	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	10 reversed	advmod
10	reversed	reverse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 level	amod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 level	punct
12	as	as	ADP	_	15 level	case
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 level	case
14	«	«	PUNCT	_	15 level	punct
15	level	level	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 word	nmod
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 level	punct
17	or	or	CCONJ	_	19 noon	cc
18	«	«	PUNCT	_	19 noon	punct
19	noon	noon	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 level	conj
20	»	»	PUNCT	_	19 noon	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the spelling					of identical reversed level or noon; identical property	tree rules
2	reverse	participle							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

A word identical in meaning to another but distinct in pronunciation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 word	amod
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 meaning	case
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identical	obl
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 another	case
7	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	5 meaning	nmod
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 distinct	cc
9	distinct	distinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 identical	conj
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 pronunciation	case
11	pronunciation	pronunciation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 word	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/english/11-homophones-and-near-homophones/e1/