Test 17 · Understanding cats

Emily's nan says her cat purred while it was dying so cats purr when they're sad, every time

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: nan, cat, cats, they · What happens: say, purr, die, be · To what, where: cat · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 17 of lesson 23 «Understanding cats» 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	Emily	Emily	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 nan	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Emily	case
3	nan	nan	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 cat	nmod:poss
6	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	obj
7	purred	purr	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 cat	acl
8	while	while	SCONJ	_	11 dying	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 dying	nsubj
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 dying	aux
11	dying	die	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 purred	advcl
12	so	so	ADV	_	14 purr	advmod
13	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 purr	nsubj
14	purr	purr	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 says	ccomp
15	when	when	SCONJ	_	18 sad	mark
16	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 sad	nsubj
17	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 sad	cop
18	sad	sad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 purr	advcl
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 time	punct
20	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	21 time	det
21	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Emily's nan	nan's cat		tree rules
2	purr	participle		nan's cat not said here		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	die	past · progressive	cat			vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
4	purr	present	cats			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	is	present	they		sad property	tree rules

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 right answer

Not every time; cats usually purr when content but can also purr when hurt or stressed

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	3 time	advmod
2	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	3 time	det
3	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 purr	obl
4	;	;	PUNCT	_	3 time	punct
5	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 purr	nsubj
6	usually	usually	ADV	_	7 purr	advmod
7	purr	purr	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	when	when	SCONJ	_	9 content	mark
9	content	content	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 purr	advcl
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	13 purr	cc
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 purr	aux
12	also	also	ADV	_	13 purr	advmod
13	purr	purr	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 purr	conj
14	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	15 hurt	advmod
15	hurt	hurt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 purr	advcl
16	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 stressed	cc
17	stressed	stress	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 hurt	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	purr	present	cats	time	usually property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	purr	can	cats not said here			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	hurt	participle	cats not said here			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
4	stress	participle	cats not said here			vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2

She is right, purring always means sadness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 purring	punct
5	purring	purr	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 right	advcl
6	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 means	advmod
7	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 purring	ccomp
8	sadness	sadness	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 means	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	She		right property	tree rules
2	purr	gerund	She not said here			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	mean	present	She not said here	sadness	always property	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sadness=Topic

Option 3

She is right, so purring cats must see a vet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 see	punct
5	so	so	ADV	_	9 see	advmod
6	purring	purr	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 cats	amod
7	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 see	nsubj
8	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 see	aux
9	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 right	parataxis
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 vet	det
11	vet	vet	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 see	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	She		right property	tree rules
2	purr	gerund				vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	see	must	purring cats	a vet		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer vet=Stimulus

Option 4

She is right, cats only purr before dying

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 purr	punct
5	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 purr	nsubj
6	only	only	ADV	_	7 purr	advmod
7	purr	purr	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	conj
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	9 dying	mark
9	dying	die	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 purr	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	She	right property	tree rules
2	purr	present	cats		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	die	gerund	cats not said here		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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/23-understanding-cats/t17/