Exam question 3 · Borrowing without asking

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises fruit growing upon a branch which overhangs a neighbouring property?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: fruit, branch · What happens: follow, characteris, grow, overhang, neighbour · To what, where: fruit, branch, neighbouring property

This is exam question 3 of lesson 339 «Borrowing without asking» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	fruit	fruit	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
10	growing	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 fruit	acl
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 branch	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 branch	det
13	branch	branch	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 growing	obl
14	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 overhangs	nsubj
15	overhangs	overhang	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 branch	acl:relcl
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 property	det
17	neighbouring	neighbour	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	18 property	amod
18	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 overhangs	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		fruit		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	grow	gerund	fruit not said here		a branch		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon branch=Location
4	overhang	present	a branch	a neighbouring property			vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme property=Co-Theme
5	neighbour	gerund					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

It belongs to no person whatsoever

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 belongs	nsubj
2	belongs	belong	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 person	case
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 person	det
5	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 belongs	obl
6	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 belongs	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	belong	present	It					to no person; whatsoever property	vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It remains the property of the owner of the tree

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 remains	nsubj
2	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 property	det
4	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 remains	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 owner	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 owner	det
7	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 property	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 tree	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 tree	det
10	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 owner	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	present	It	the property of the owner of the tree					vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme property=Attribute

Option 3

It becomes the property of whoever stands beneath it

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 becomes	nsubj
2	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 property	det
4	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 becomes	xcomp
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 stands	mark
6	whoever	whoever	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 stands	nsubj
7	stands	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 property	acl:relcl
8	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	9 it	case
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 stands	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	It	the property					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	stand	present	whoever			property			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beneath it=Location

Option 4

It may be taken freely by children

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	4 taken	nsubj:pass
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 taken	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 taken	aux:pass
4	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	freely	freely	ADV	_	4 taken	advmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 children	case
7	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 taken	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	may · passive	children	It				freely property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

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/339-borrowing-without-asking/e3/