Exam question 2 · Reading a dog's body language

Identify the meaning ordinarily conveyed by a tail held tucked between the hind legs.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, convey, hold, tuck · To what, where: meaning, tail, hind legs

This is exam question 2 of lesson 21 «Reading a dog's body language» of the everyday 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	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	ordinarily	ordinarily	ADV	_	5 conveyed	advmod
5	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 meaning	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 tail	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 tail	det
8	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conveyed	obl
9	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 tail	acl
10	tucked	tuck	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 held	xcomp
11	between	between	ADP	_	14 legs	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 legs	det
13	hind	hind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 legs	amod
14	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 tucked	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the meaning			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	convey	participle		the meaning not said here		by a tail; ordinarily property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	hold	participle		a tail not said here			vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	tuck	participle			the hind legs		vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent between leg=Destination

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

That the dog is about to fetch a ball

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 dog	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dog	det
3	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 about	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 about	cop
5	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 fetch	mark
7	fetch	fetch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 about	xcomp
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 ball	det
9	ball	ball	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 fetch	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that dog					about property	tree rules
2	fetch	to-infinitive	that dog not said here	a ball					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ball=Theme

Option 2

That the dog is hungry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 dog	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dog	det
3	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hungry	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 hungry	cop
5	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that dog					hungry property	tree rules

Option 3

That the dog is relaxed and friendly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 dog	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dog	det
3	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 relaxed	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 relaxed	cop
5	relaxed	relaxed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 friendly	cc
7	friendly	friendly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 relaxed	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that dog					relaxed property	tree rules
2	be		that dog not said here						tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

That the dog is frightened

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 dog	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dog	det
3	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 frightened	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 frightened	aux:pass
5	frightened	frighten	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	frighten	present · passive		that dog					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer

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/everyday/21-reading-a-dog/e2/