Exam question 1 · Direct speech: inverted commas and new speakers

Identify the correctly punctuated instance of direct speech.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, punctuate, instance · To what, where: punctuated instance, direct speech

This is exam question 1 of lesson 35 «Direct speech: inverted commas and new speakers» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 instance	det
3	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	4 punctuated	advmod
4	punctuated	punctuate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 instance	amod
5	instance	instance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 speech	case
7	direct	direct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 speech	amod
8	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 instance	nmod
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the punctuated instance of direct speech		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent instance=Theme
2	punctuate	participle			correctly property	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent
3	instance			direct speech		nom instance «event 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

"Sit down." said the teacher.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Sit	punct
2	Sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 said	ccomp
3	down	down	ADP	_	2 Sit	compound:prt
4	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 Sit	punct
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Sit	punct
6	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 teacher	det
8	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	nsubj
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 said	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit down in a quote	infinitive							vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert	past	the teacher						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic

Option 2

"Sit down" said the teacher.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Sit	punct
2	Sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 said	ccomp
3	down	down	ADP	_	2 Sit	compound:prt
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Sit	punct
5	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 teacher	det
7	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 said	nsubj
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit down in a quote	infinitive							vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert	past	the teacher						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic

Option 3

Sit down, "said the teacher."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sit	sit	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	down	down	ADP	_	1 Sit	compound:prt
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct
5	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Sit	parataxis
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 teacher	det
7	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 said	nsubj
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Sit	punct
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	1 Sit	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit down	imperative	you not said here						tree rules
2	say speech: assert in a quote	past	the teacher						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

"Sit down," said the teacher.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Sit	punct
2	Sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 said	ccomp
3	down	down	ADP	_	2 Sit	compound:prt
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Sit	punct
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Sit	punct
6	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 teacher	det
8	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	nsubj
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 said	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit down in a quote	infinitive							vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert	past	the teacher						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic

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/35-direct-speech-inverted-commas-and-new-speakers/e1/