Exam question 4 · Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging

Ascertain the correct form signifying that a bone is in the possession of a single dog.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, correct form, bone · What happens: ascertain, signify, be · To what, where: correct form, possession

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 form	det
3	correct	correct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 form	amod
4	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	signifying	signify	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 form	acl
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 possession	mark
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 bone	det
8	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 possession	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 possession	cop
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 possession	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 possession	det
12	possession	possession	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 signifying	ccomp
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 dog	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 dog	det
15	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 dog	amod
16	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 possession	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the correct form			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent form=Topic
2	signify	gerund	the correct form not said here				vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
3	is	present	a bone		the possession	of a single dog	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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

the dogs' bone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dogs	det
2	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 bone	nmod:poss
3	'	's	PART	_	2 dogs	case
4	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

the dogs bone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dogs	det
2	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 bone	compound
3	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

the dog bone's

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 bone	det
2	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bone	compound
3	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	's	's	PART	_	3 bone	case

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

the dog's bone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dog	det
2	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bone	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 dog	case
4	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/e4/