Exam question 2 · Fronted adverbials

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the punctuation conventionally required after a fronted adverbial?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, require, front · To what, where: punctuation

This is exam question 2 of lesson 29 «Fronted adverbials» 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 punctuation	det
10	punctuation	punctuation	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	conventionally	conventionally	ADV	_	12 required	advmod
12	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 punctuation	acl
13	after	after	ADP	_	16 adverbial	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 adverbial	det
15	fronted	front	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 adverbial	amod
16	adverbial	adverbial	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 required	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the punctuation		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	require	participle	the punctuation not said here	after a fronted adverbial	conventionally property	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme
4	front	participle				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 right answer

A comma is placed after it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 comma	det
2	comma	comma	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 placed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 placed	aux:pass
4	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	after	after	ADP	_	6 it	case
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 placed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	present · passive		a comma			after it		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

A question mark is placed after it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 mark	det
2	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mark	compound
3	mark	mark	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 placed	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 placed	aux:pass
5	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	after	after	ADP	_	7 it	case
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 placed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	present · passive		a question mark			after it		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3

A full stop is placed after it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 stop	det
2	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stop	amod
3	stop	stop	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 placed	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 placed	aux:pass
5	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	after	after	ADP	_	7 it	case
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 placed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	present · passive		a full stop			after it		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

A semicolon is placed before it and a colon after it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 semicolon	det
2	semicolon	semicolon	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 placed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 placed	aux:pass
4	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	before	before	ADP	_	6 it	case
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 placed	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 colon	cc
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 colon	det
9	colon	colon	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 placed	conj
10	after	after	ADP	_	11 it	case
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 colon	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	present · passive		a semicolon		it			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme before it=Destination

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/29-fronted-adverbials/e2/