Test 9 · ★★ · Author's choices: why this word, why this way

«why's the writer say 'the sea swallowed the boat', seas don't eat». What is the effect?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: writer, sea, boat seas, effect · What happens: say, swallow, not eat, be · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 · ★★ of lesson 21 «Author's choices: why this word, why this way» of the English 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: «why's the writer say 'the sea swallowed the boat', seas don't eat».

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 say	punct
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 say	advmod
3	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 say	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 writer	det
5	writer	writer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 say	nsubj
6	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	'	'	PUNCT	_	10 swallowed	punct
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sea	det
9	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 swallowed	nsubj
10	swallowed	swallow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 say	ccomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 boat	det
12	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 seas	compound
13	',	',	PART	_	12 boat	dep
14	seas	sea	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 eat	nsubj
15	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 eat	aux
16	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	17 eat	advmod
17	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 swallowed	ccomp
18	»	»	PUNCT	_	10 swallowed	punct
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 say	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	present	the writer	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	swallow in a quote	past	the sea	tree rules
3	not eat in a quote	present · do-support	boat seas	vn eat-39.1-1 «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.

Sentence 2: What is the effect?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 effect	det
4	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

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

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The writer thinks the sea really eats things, like a whale or a shark does

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 writer	det
2	writer	writer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 thinks	nsubj
3	thinks	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sea	det
5	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 eats	nsubj
6	really	really	ADV	_	7 eats	advmod
7	eats	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 thinks	ccomp
8	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 eats	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 whale	punct
10	like	like	ADP	_	12 whale	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 whale	det
12	whale	whale	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 things	nmod
13	or	or	CCONJ	_	15 shark	cc
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 shark	det
15	shark	shark	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 whale	conj
16	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 eats	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	present	the writer			vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	eat	present	the sea	things	like a whale or a shark	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Patient
3	do	present	the sea not said here			vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It's a mistake

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 mistake	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 mistake	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 mistake	det
4	mistake	mistake	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

It means the boat was food

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	2 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boat	det
4	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 food	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 food	cop
6	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 means	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	the boat	food					tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It makes the sea seem hungry and powerful

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	2 makes	nsubj
2	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sea	det
4	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 makes	obj
5	seem	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 makes	xcomp
6	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 makes	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 powerful	cc
8	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 hungry	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	It	the sea				hungry property	tree rules
2	seem	present	the sea not said here						vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme

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/21-authors-choices-why-this-word-why-this-way/t9/