Exam question 4 · Poetry: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration

Ascertain which of the following constitutes onomatopoeia rather than alliteration.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, follow, constitute · To what, where: onomatopoeia

This is exam question 4 of lesson 46 «Poetry: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration» 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	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	1 Ascertain	obj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 the	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 which	nmod
5	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 constitutes	nsubj
6	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 the	acl:relcl
7	onomatopoeia	onomatopoeia	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 constitutes	obj
8	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	10 alliteration	cc
9	than	than	ADP	_	8 rather	fixed
10	alliteration	alliteration	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 onomatopoeia	conj
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Topic
2	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	constitute	present		onomatopoeia rather alliteration	vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme onomatopoeia=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

Big brown bear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 bear	amod
2	brown	brown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 bear	amod
3	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 2

Crooked crag

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crooked	crooked	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 crag	amod
2	crag	crag	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

Slithering snakes slide

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Slithering	slither	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 snakes	amod
2	snakes	snake	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 slide	nsubj
3	slide	slide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	slither	gerund							vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	slide	present	Slithering snakes						vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Buzz

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Buzz	buzz	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/46-poetry-simile-metaphor-personification-alliteration/e4/