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Test 4 · Commas: lists, clauses and clarity

In a cartoon, a sign says "Slow children crossing." What comma would stop the joke?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sign, Slow children, comma · What happens: say, cross, stop · To what, where: cartoon, joke · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 4 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: In a cartoon, a sign says "Slow children crossing."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	3 cartoon	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 cartoon	det
3	cartoon	cartoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 says	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 cartoon	punct
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 sign	det
6	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 says	nsubj
7	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 children	punct
9	Slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 children	amod
10	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 says	ccomp
11	crossing	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 children	acl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	11 crossing	punct
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 children	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	a sign			a cartoon			vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in cartoon=Manner
2	cross in a quote	gerund	Slow children not said here						vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «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.

Sentence 2: What comma would stop the joke?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 stop	obj
2	comma	comma	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stop	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 stop	aux
4	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 joke	det
6	joke	joke	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stop	obj
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 stop	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stop	would	comma	the joke					tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

Slow, children crossing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 children	amod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Slow	punct
3	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	crossing	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 children	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cross	gerund	Slow children not said here						vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Slow children, crossing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 children	amod
2	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 crossing	nmod:poss
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 children	punct
4	crossing	crossing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cross		Slow children						nom crossing «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

Slow children crossing,

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 children	amod
2	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 crossing	nsubj
3	crossing	cross	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 crossing	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cross	gerund	Slow children						vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

No comma can change it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 comma	det
2	comma	comma	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 change	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 change	aux
4	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 change	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	can	no comma	it					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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/t4/