Test 8 · Reading a dog's body language

Why is it useful to watch a dog's whole body, not just its tail?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: it · What happens: be, watch · To what, where: whole body

This is test 8 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 useful	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 useful	cop
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 useful	nsubj
4	useful	useful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 watch	mark
6	watch	watch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 useful	advcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 dog	det
8	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 body	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 dog	case
10	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 body	amod
11	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 watch	obj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 tail	punct
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 tail	advmod
14	just	just	ADV	_	16 tail	advmod
15	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 tail	nmod:poss
16	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 body	conj
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 useful	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	it					useful property	tree rules
2	watch	to-infinitive		a dog's whole body and dog's tail					vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=Theme

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 · ✓ the right answer

The tail alone can fool you about its mood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tail	det
2	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fool	nsubj
3	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 tail	advmod
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 fool	aux
5	fool	fool	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	5 fool	obj
7	about	about	ADP	_	9 mood	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 mood	nmod:poss
9	mood	mood	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fool	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fool	can	the tail	you				about tail's mood	vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Patient

Option 2

The body never changes when a dog feels scared

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 body	det
2	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 changes	nsubj
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 changes	advmod
4	changes	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	when	when	SCONJ	_	8 feels	mark
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 dog	det
7	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 feels	nsubj
8	feels	feel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 changes	ccomp
9	scared	scared	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 feels	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present	the body						tree rules
2	feel	present	a dog					scared property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

Option 3

Only the tail ever shows a dog's mood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 tail	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 tail	det
3	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 shows	nsubj
4	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 shows	advmod
5	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 dog	det
7	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 mood	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 dog	case
9	mood	mood	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 shows	obj

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

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Dogs keep their tails still when they are angry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 keep	nsubj
2	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 tails	nmod:poss
4	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 keep	obj
5	still	still	ADV	_	2 keep	advmod
6	when	when	SCONJ	_	9 angry	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 angry	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 angry	cop
9	angry	angry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 keep	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	present	Dogs	Dogs's tails			still		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Theme
2	is	present	Dogs = dog					angry property	tree rules

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/t8/