Exam question 3 · Commas: lists, clauses and clarity

Select the response consistent with established convention in respect of a fronted adverbial.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: select, establish, front, respect · To what, where: response, fronted adverbial

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	amod
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 convention	case
6	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 convention	amod
7	convention	convention	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consistent	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 respect	case
9	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 convention	nmod
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 adverbial	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 adverbial	det
12	fronted	front	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 adverbial	amod
13	adverbial	adverbial	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 respect	nmod
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle			vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	front	participle			tree rules
4	respect			a fronted adverbial	nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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

Later that, day we went home.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 went	advmod
2	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 day	det
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 day	punct
4	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 went	obl:unmarked
5	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 went	nsubj
6	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	home	home	ADV	_	6 went	advmod
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 went	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	we				day	home, late property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Later that day, we went home.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 day	advmod
2	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 day	det
3	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 went	obl:unmarked
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 day	punct
5	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 went	nsubj
6	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	home	home	ADV	_	6 went	advmod
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 went	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	we				day	home property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Later that day we, went home.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 went	advmod
2	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 day	det
3	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 went	obl:unmarked
4	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 went	nsubj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 went	punct
6	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	home	home	ADV	_	6 went	advmod
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 went	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	we				day	home, late property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Later, that day we went home.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 went	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Later	punct
3	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 day	det
4	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 went	obl:unmarked
5	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 went	nsubj
6	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	home	home	ADV	_	6 went	advmod
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 went	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	we				day	home, late property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: 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.

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