Exam question 4 · Fronted adverbials
Ascertain which of the following may serve as a fronted adverbial.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, follow, serve, front
This is exam question 4 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 | Ascertain | ascertain | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 7 serve | obj |
| 3 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 7 serve | mark |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 serve | det |
| 5 | following | follow | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 7 serve | nsubj |
| 6 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 serve | aux |
| 7 | serve | serve | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 1 Ascertain | ccomp |
| 8 | as | as | ADP | _ | 11 adverbial | case |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 11 adverbial | det |
| 10 | fronted | front | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 adverbial | amod |
| 11 | adverbial | adverbial | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 serve | obl |
| 12 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ascertain | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ascertain | imperative | you not said here | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | follow | gerund | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 3 | serve | may | as a fronted adverbial | vn spend_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent which=Duration as adverbial=Attribute | |||||
| 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
A proper noun only
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 noun | det |
| 2 | proper | proper | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 noun | amod |
| 3 | noun | noun | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | only | only | ADV | _ | 3 noun | advmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
A complete main clause, provided that it is followed by a full stop
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 clause | det |
| 2 | complete | complete | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 clause | amod |
| 3 | main | main | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 clause | amod |
| 4 | clause | clause | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 provided | nsubj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 clause | punct |
| 6 | provided | provide | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 followed | mark |
| 8 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 followed | nsubj:pass |
| 9 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 followed | aux:pass |
| 10 | followed | follow | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 provided | advcl |
| 11 | by | by | ADP | _ | 14 stop | case |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 stop | det |
| 13 | full | full | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 stop | amod |
| 14 | stop | stop | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 followed | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | provide | past | a complete main clause | vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition | |||||
| 2 | follow | present · passive | a full stop | clause | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
Option 3
A single word only
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 word | det |
| 2 | single | single | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 word | amod |
| 3 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | only | only | ADV | _ | 3 word | advmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
A single word, a phrase or a subordinate clause
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 word | det |
| 2 | single | single | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 word | amod |
| 3 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 phrase | punct |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 phrase | det |
| 6 | phrase | phrase | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 word | appos |
| 7 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 10 clause | cc |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 clause | det |
| 9 | subordinate | subordinate | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 clause | amod |
| 10 | clause | clause | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 word | conj |
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/29-fronted-adverbials/e4/