Exam question 1 · Commas: lists, clauses and clarity

Identify the sentence in which the comma serves to indicate the person being addressed.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, comma · What happens: identify, serve, indicate, address · To what, where: sentence, person

This is exam question 1 of lesson 33 «Commas: lists, clauses and clarity» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sentence	det
3	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 serves	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 comma	det
7	comma	comma	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 serves	nsubj
8	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 sentence	acl:relcl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 indicate	mark
10	indicate	indicate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 serves	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 person	det
12	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 indicate	obj
13	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 addressed	aux:pass
14	addressed	address	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 person	acl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the sentence		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent sentence=Theme
2	serve	present	the comma		the sentence	tree rules
3	indicate	to-infinitive	the comma not said here	the person		vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot person=Topic
4	address	gerund · passive		the person not said here		vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»

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

Let's eat, Grandma!

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	's	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Let	obj
3	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Let	xcomp
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 Grandma	punct
5	Grandma	grandma	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 eat	obj
6	!	!	PUNCT	_	1 Let	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let	imperative	you not said here	's					tree rules
2	eat	infinitive	's not said here	Grandma					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandma=Patient

Option 2

Let's eat Grandma!

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	's	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Let	obj
3	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Let	xcomp
4	Grandma	grandma	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 eat	obj
5	!	!	PUNCT	_	1 Let	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let	imperative	you not said here	's					tree rules
2	eat	infinitive	's not said here	Grandma					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandma=Patient

Option 3

Let's, eat Grandma!

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	's	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Let	obj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 eat	punct
4	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Let	xcomp
5	Grandma	grandma	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eat	obj
6	!	!	PUNCT	_	1 Let	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let	imperative	you not said here	's					tree rules
2	eat	infinitive	's not said here	Grandma					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandma=Patient

Option 4

Let's eat Grandma, now!

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	's	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Let	obj
3	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Let	xcomp
4	Grandma	Grandma	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 eat	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 now	punct
6	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 eat	advmod
7	!	!	PUNCT	_	1 Let	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let	imperative	you not said here	's					tree rules
2	eat	infinitive	's not said here	Grandma			now		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandma=Patient

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/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/e1/