Test 8 · ★★ · Home alone, the door and the phone

Which is the safest thing to say to a stranger asking for your dad on the phone?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be, say, ask · To what, where: safest thing, stranger, phone · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 · ★★ of lesson 35 «Home alone, the door and the phone» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 thing	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 thing	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 thing	det
4	safest	safe	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 thing	amod
5	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 say	mark
7	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 thing	acl
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 stranger	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 stranger	det
10	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 say	obl
11	asking	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 say	xcomp
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 dad	case
13	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 dad	nmod:poss
14	dad	dad	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 asking	obl
15	on	on	ADP	_	17 phone	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 phone	det
17	phone	phone	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 asking	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 thing	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the safest thing				tree rules
2	say speech: assert	to-infinitive		a stranger			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to stranger=Recipient clause=Topic
3	ask speech: ask	gerund			the phone	for your dad	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

"He went away, I'm on my own."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 went	punct
2	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 went	nsubj
3	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	away	away	ADV	_	3 went	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 own	punct
6	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 own	nsubj
7	'm	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 own	cop
8	on	on	ADP	_	10 own	case
9	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 own	nmod:poss
10	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 went	obl
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 went	punct
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 went	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go away in a quote	past	He					away property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is in a quote	present	I					own property	tree rules

Option 2

"He's at work until late tonight."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 work	punct
2	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 work	nsubj
3	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 work	cop
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 work	case
5	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	until	until	ADP	_	7 late	case
7	late	late	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 work	advmod
8	tonight	tonight	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 late	obl:unmarked
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 work	punct
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 work	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	He			work		late property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

"He's busy right now. Can I take a message?"

Sentence 1: "He's busy right now.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 busy	punct
2	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 busy	nsubj
3	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 busy	cop
4	busy	busy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	right	right	ADV	_	6 now	advmod
6	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 busy	advmod
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 busy	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	He				now	busy property	tree rules

Sentence 2: Can I take a message?"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 take	aux
2	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 take	nsubj
3	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 message	det
5	message	message	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 take	obj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 take	punct
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 take	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	can	I	a message					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent message=Theme

Option 4

"He's out; come round to the house and wait for him."

The tree, 12 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 out	punct
2	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 out	nsubj
3	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 out	cop
4	out	out	ADV	_	6 come	advmod
5	;	;	PUNCT	_	6 come	punct
6	come	come	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	round	round	ADV	_	6 come	advmod
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 house	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 house	det
10	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 come	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 wait	cc
12	wait	wait	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	6 come	conj
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 him	case
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 wait	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 wait	punct
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 wait	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	He		out property	tree rules
2	come round in a quote	imperative	you not said here	the house	round property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to house=Initial_Location
3	wait in a quote	infinitive	you not said here		for him = he	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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/35-home-alone/t8/