Exam question 3 · Brackets, dashes, colons, semicolons and hyphens

Select the response consistent with established convention concerning parenthesis.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: select, establish · To what, where: response

This is exam question 3 of lesson 36 «Brackets, dashes, colons, semicolons and hyphens» 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 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	amod
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 convention	case
6	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 convention	amod
7	convention	convention	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consistent	obl
8	concerning	concerning	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 parenthesis	amod
9	parenthesis	parenthesis	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 convention	conj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle							vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot

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

It must contain the main verb of the sentence

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 contain	nsubj
2	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 contain	aux
3	contain	contain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 verb	det
5	main	main	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 verb	amod
6	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 contain	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 sentence	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sentence	det
9	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 verb	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	must	It	the main verb of the sentence					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot verb=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It may be indicated by brackets, dashes or commas

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	4 indicated	nsubj:pass
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 indicated	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 indicated	aux:pass
4	indicated	indicate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 brackets	case
6	brackets	bracket	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 indicated	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 dashes	punct
8	dashes	dash	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 brackets	conj
9	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 commas	cc
10	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 brackets	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	may · passive	brackets and dashes or commas	It					vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Topic

Option 3

It may be indicated solely by brackets

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	4 indicated	nsubj:pass
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 indicated	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 indicated	aux:pass
4	indicated	indicate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	solely	solely	ADV	_	4 indicated	advmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 brackets	case
7	brackets	bracket	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 indicated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	may · passive	brackets	It				solely property	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Topic

Option 4

It may not be removed without loss of grammaticality

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	5 removed	nsubj:pass
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 removed	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 removed	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 removed	aux:pass
5	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 loss	case
7	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 removed	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 grammaticality	case
9	grammaticality	grammaticality	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 loss	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not remove	may · passive		It				without loss of grammaticality	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: subject=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/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/e3/