Test 1 · Commas: lists, clauses and clarity
Your mate goes "commas are just where you take a breath, innit." What is truer?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: mate, commas · What happens: go, be
This is test 1 of lesson 33 «Commas: lists, clauses and clarity» of the English course of Mova's primary school. 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
Sentence 1: Your mate goes "commas are just where you take a breath, innit."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 mate | nmod:poss |
| 2 | mate | mate | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 goes | nsubj |
| 3 | goes | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 take | punct |
| 5 | commas | comma | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 take | nsubj |
| 6 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 take | cop |
| 7 | just | just | ADV | _ | 10 take | advmod |
| 8 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 10 take | advmod |
| 9 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 10 take | nsubj |
| 10 | take | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 goes | advcl |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 breath | det |
| 12 | breath | breath | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 take | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 innit | punct |
| 14 | innit | innit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 breath | conj |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 goes | punct |
| 16 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 goes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | present | Your mate | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | is in a quote | present | commas | take property | 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.
Sentence 2: What is truer?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 truer | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 truer | cop |
| 3 | truer | true | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 truer | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | true property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1
They are only there for breathing when you read aloud
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 there | nsubj |
| 2 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 there | cop |
| 3 | only | only | ADV | _ | 4 there | advmod |
| 4 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | root | root |
| 5 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 6 breathing | mark |
| 6 | breathing | breathe | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 there | advcl |
| 7 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 9 read | mark |
| 8 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 9 read | nsubj |
| 9 | read | read | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 breathing | advcl |
| 10 | aloud | aloud | ADV | _ | 9 read | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | They | there property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | breathe | gerund | They not said here | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | read | present | you | aloud property | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
They group words to show meaning, not just breaths
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 words | nsubj |
| 2 | group | group | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 words | compound |
| 3 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 show | mark |
| 5 | show | show | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 words | acl |
| 6 | meaning | meaning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 show | obj |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 breaths | punct |
| 8 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 10 breaths | advmod |
| 9 | just | just | ADV | _ | 10 breaths | advmod |
| 10 | breaths | breath | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 words | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | show | to-infinitive | meaning | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent meaning=Recipient |
Option 3
They are decoration and change nothing
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 decoration | nsubj |
| 2 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 decoration | cop |
| 3 | decoration | decoration | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 change | cc |
| 5 | change | change | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 decoration | conj |
| 6 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 5 change | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | They | decoration | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | change | present | They not said here | nothing | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
Option 4
They mean you should stop reading for a second
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 mean | nsubj |
| 2 | mean | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 5 stop | nsubj |
| 4 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 stop | aux |
| 5 | stop | stop | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 mean | ccomp |
| 6 | reading | read | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 5 stop | xcomp |
| 7 | for | for | ADP | _ | 9 second | case |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 second | det |
| 9 | second | second | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 reading | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | They | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | stop | should | you | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 3 | read | gerund | you not said here | second | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/t1/