Exam question 3 · Reading a dog's body language

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning the play bow.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern · To what, where: response, play bow

This is exam question 3 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	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	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 bow	det
13	play	play	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 bow	compound
14	bow	bow	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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	is	present	the response		with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the play bow		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus bow=Experiencer

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 dog lies flat upon its back as a sign of anger

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	3 lies	nsubj
3	lies	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 lies	xcomp
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 back	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 back	nmod:poss
7	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lies	obl
8	as	as	ADP	_	10 sign	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 sign	det
10	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lies	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 anger	case
12	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 sign	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	present	the dog			dog's back		as a sign of anger; flat property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon back=Location
2	sign			anger					nom sign «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The dog shows the whites of its eyes as a greeting

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	3 shows	nsubj
3	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 whites	det
5	whites	white	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shows	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 eyes	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 eyes	nmod:poss
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 whites	nmod
9	as	as	ADP	_	11 greeting	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 greeting	det
11	greeting	greeting	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shows	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	the dog	the whites of dog's eyes				as a greeting	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent white=Recipient

Option 3

The dog raises its tail stiffly as a warning

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	3 raises	nsubj
3	raises	raise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 tail	nmod:poss
5	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 raises	obj
6	stiffly	stiffly	ADV	_	3 raises	advmod
7	as	as	ADP	_	9 warning	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 warning	det
9	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 raises	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	present	the dog	dog's tail				as a warning; stiffly property	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The front legs are lowered and the hindquarters raised, constituting an invitation to play

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 legs	det
2	front	front	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 legs	amod
3	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 lowered	nsubj:pass
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 lowered	aux:pass
5	lowered	lower	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 raised	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 hindquarters	det
8	hindquarters	hindquarter	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 raised	nsubj
9	raised	raise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 lowered	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 constituting	punct
11	constituting	constitute	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 raised	advcl
12	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 invitation	det
13	invitation	invitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 constituting	obj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 play	mark
15	play	play	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 constituting	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	lower	present · passive		the front legs	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	raise	past	the hindquarters		vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	constitute	gerund	the hindquarters not said here	a invitation	tree rules
4	play	to-infinitive	the hindquarters not said here		vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/e3/