Exam question 3 · Relative clauses

Select the response consistent with the established conventions concerning the sentence «The dog, which was barking loudly, ran away».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established conventions, dog · What happens: select, establish, concern, bark, run away · To what, where: consistent, sentence · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 30 «Relative clauses» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 consistent	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consistent	obl:unmarked
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 conventions	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 conventions	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 conventions	amod
8	conventions	convention	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 conventions	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sentence	det
11	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	«	«	PUNCT	_	14 dog	punct
13	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 dog	det
14	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 sentence	appos
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 barking	punct
16	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 barking	nsubj
17	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 barking	aux
18	barking	bark	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 dog	acl:relcl
19	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	18 barking	advmod
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 ran	punct
21	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Select	parataxis
22	away	away	ADV	_	21 ran	advmod
23	»	»	PUNCT	_	21 ran	punct
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the consistent		vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent consistent=Theme clause=Attribute
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established conventions not said here	the sentence		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sentence=Experiencer
4	bark in a quote	past · progressive	the dog		loudly property	vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	run away in a quote	past			away property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 commas indicate a list

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 commas	det
2	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 indicate	nsubj
3	indicate	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 list	det
5	list	list	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 indicate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	the commas	a list					vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot list=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The commas enclose additional information that may be omitted

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 commas	det
2	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 enclose	nsubj
3	enclose	enclose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	additional	additional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 information	amod
5	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 enclose	obj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 omitted	obj
7	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 omitted	aux
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 omitted	aux:pass
9	omitted	omit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 information	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enclose	present	the commas	additional information					vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme information=Co-Theme
2	omit	may · passive		additional information					vn exclude-107.3 «NP V NP»: that=Theme

Option 3

The commas render the sentence a question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 commas	det
2	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 render	nsubj
3	render	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sentence	det
5	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 render	obj
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 question	det
7	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 render	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	the commas	the sentence					vn give-13.1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent sentence=Recipient question=Theme

Option 4

The commas are superfluous and must be removed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 commas	det
2	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 superfluous	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 superfluous	cop
4	superfluous	superfluous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 removed	cc
6	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 removed	aux
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 removed	aux:pass
8	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 superfluous	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the commas					superfluous property	tree rules
2	remove	must · passive	the commas not said here						vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»

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.

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