Exam question 3 · Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging

Select the sentence consistent with the established rules concerning "its" and "it's".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established rules, sentence · What happens: select, establish, concern, be · To what, where: sentence

This is exam question 3 of lesson 34 «Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging» 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 sentence	det
3	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 rules	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rules	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 rules	amod
8	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 rules	acl
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 its	punct
11	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 concerning	obj
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 its	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 's	cc
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 's	punct
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 's	nsubj
16	's	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Select	conj
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 's	punct
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the sentence	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sentence=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established rules not said here	sentence		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus its=Experiencer
4	be in a quote	present	sentence			vn exist-47.1 «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

Its late and the cat wants its tea.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 late	nmod:poss
2	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 wants	cc
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wants	nsubj
6	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 late	conj
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 tea	nmod:poss
8	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wants	obj
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 late	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	present	the cat	cat's tea					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot tea=Theme

Option 2

It's late and the cat wants it's tea.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 late	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 late	cop
3	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 wants	cc
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cat	det
6	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 wants	nsubj
7	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 late	conj
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 tea	nsubj
9	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 tea	cop
10	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 wants	obj
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 late	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	It		late property	tree rules
2	want	present	the cat			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
3	is a	present	cat	tea		tree rules

Option 3

Its late and the cat wants it's tea.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 late	nmod:poss
2	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 wants	cc
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wants	nsubj
6	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 late	conj
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 tea	nsubj
8	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 tea	cop
9	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wants	obj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 late	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	present	the cat						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
2	is a	present	cat	tea					tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It's late and the cat wants its tea.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 late	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 late	cop
3	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 wants	cc
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cat	det
6	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 wants	nsubj
7	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 late	conj
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 tea	nmod:poss
9	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 wants	obj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 late	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					late property	tree rules
2	want	present	the cat	cat's tea					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot tea=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/e3/