Test 16 · Farm animals and horses

my uncle says a horse kicked a lad clean over a fence cos he walked right behind it

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: uncle, horse · What happens: say, kick, walk · To what, where: lad, fence cos · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 16 of lesson 28 «Farm animals and horses» 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	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 uncle	nmod:poss
2	uncle	uncle	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 horse	det
5	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 kicked	nsubj
6	kicked	kick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 says	ccomp
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 lad	det
8	lad	lad	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 kicked	obj
9	clean	clean	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 kicked	xcomp
10	over	over	ADP	_	13 cos	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 cos	det
12	fence	fence	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 cos	compound
13	cos	cos	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 kicked	obl
14	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 walked	nsubj
15	walked	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 cos	acl:relcl
16	right	right	ADV	_	18 it	advmod
17	behind	behind	ADP	_	18 it	case
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 kicked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	my uncle				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	kick	past	a horse	a lad	a fence cos	behind cos; clean property	vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent lad=Patient over cos=Location
3	walk	past	horse	a fence cos not said here			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme cos=Trajectory

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

It proves horses should never be ridden

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 proves	nsubj
2	proves	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 proves	obj
4	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 ridden	aux
5	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	7 ridden	advmod
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 ridden	aux:pass
7	ridden	ride	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 proves	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	present	It	horses					vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Theme
2	not ride	should · passive							vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It is gossip, so walking behind horses is fine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 gossip	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 gossip	cop
3	gossip	gossip	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 fine	punct
5	so	so	ADV	_	10 fine	advmod
6	walking	walk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 fine	csubj
7	behind	behind	ADP	_	8 horses	case
8	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 walking	obl
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 fine	cop
10	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 gossip	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	gossip		tree rules
2	walk	gerund			behind horses	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind horse=Trajectory
3	is	present	walking	gossip not said here	fine property	tree rules

Option 3

Real lesson: horses only kick boys

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 lesson	amod
2	lesson	lesson	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 kick	nsubj:outer
3	:	:	PUNCT	_	4 horses	punct
4	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 kick	nsubj
5	only	only	ADV	_	6 kick	advmod
6	kick	kick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 kick	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kick	present	Real lesson	boys					vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent boy=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Real lesson: never walk behind a horse; «clean over a fence» may be exaggerated

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 lesson	amod
2	lesson	lesson	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 exaggerated	nsubj:pass
3	:	:	PUNCT	_	5 walk	punct
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 walk	advmod
5	walk	walk	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 lesson	parataxis
6	behind	behind	ADP	_	8 horse	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 horse	det
8	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 walk	obl
9	;	;	PUNCT	_	11 clean	punct
10	«	«	PUNCT	_	11 clean	punct
11	clean	clean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 walk	parataxis
12	over	over	ADP	_	14 fence	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 fence	det
14	fence	fence	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 clean	obl
15	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 walk	punct
16	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 exaggerated	aux
17	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	18 exaggerated	aux:pass
18	exaggerated	exaggerate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	not walk	infinitive			behind a horse	tree rules
2	clean in a quote	infinitive		a fence		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	exaggerate	may · passive	Real lesson			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/28-farm-animals-and-horses/t16/