Test 14 · Reading a dog's body language

dog's gone stiff and is showing the whites of its eyes, still wanna pat him

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: show, pat · To what, where: whites, him

This is test 14 of lesson 21 «Reading a dog's body language» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school. 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	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stiff	nsubj
2	's	's	PART	_	1 dog	case
3	gone	gone	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 stiff	amod
4	stiff	stiff	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 showing	cc
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 showing	aux
7	showing	show	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 stiff	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 whites	det
9	whites	white	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 showing	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 eyes	case
11	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 eyes	nmod:poss
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 whites	nmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 pat	punct
14	still	still	ADV	_	16 pat	advmod
15	wanna	wanna	X	Foreign=Yes	16 pat	dep
16	pat	pat	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 stiff	parataxis
17	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 pat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present · progressive		the whites of dog's eyes					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent white=Recipient
2	pat	infinitive		him = he			still		vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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

Pat him faster to calm him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pat	Pat	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 faster	nsubj
2	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Pat	flat
3	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 calm	mark
5	calm	calm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 faster	advcl
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 calm	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	calm	to-infinitive		Pat					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer

Option 2

Look straight in his eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Look	look	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	straight	straight	ADV	_	1 Look	advmod
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 eyes	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 eyes	nmod:poss
5	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Look	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	imperative	you not said here					in his eyes; straight property	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in eye=Theme

Option 3

Hug him so he feels safe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hug	hug	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Hug	obj
3	so	so	ADV	_	5 feels	advmod
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 feels	nsubj
5	feels	feel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Hug	advcl
6	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 feels	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hug	imperative	you not said here	him = he					vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Co-Agent
2	feel	present	he					safe property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Stop and step back slowly, he may bite

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stop	stop	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 step	cc
3	step	step	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	1 Stop	conj
4	back	back	ADV	_	5 slowly	advmod
5	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	3 step	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 bite	punct
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 bite	nsubj
8	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 bite	aux
9	bite	bite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Stop	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	stop	imperative	you not said here		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	step back	infinitive	you not said here	slowly property	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	bite	may	he		vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: 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/t14/