Test 9 · The ball over the fence and the grumpy old man next door
Jake says, «it was only a cheap pot, why should I pay?» Fair to pay?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Jake, it · What happens: say, be, pay · To what, where: cheap pot · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 9 of lesson 473 «The ball over the fence and the grumpy old man next door» 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
Sentence 1: Jake says, «it was only a cheap pot, why should I pay?»
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake | Jake | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 says | nsubj |
| 2 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 pot | punct |
| 4 | « | « | PUNCT | _ | 10 pot | punct |
| 5 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 pot | nsubj |
| 6 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 pot | cop |
| 7 | only | only | ADV | _ | 10 pot | advmod |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 pot | det |
| 9 | cheap | cheap | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 pot | amod |
| 10 | pot | pot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 says | ccomp |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 pay | punct |
| 12 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 15 pay | advmod |
| 13 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 15 pay | aux |
| 14 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 15 pay | nsubj |
| 15 | pay | pay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 pot | parataxis |
| 16 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 15 pay | punct |
| 17 | » | » | PUNCT | _ | 15 pay | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: ask | present | Jake | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is a in a quote | past | it | a cheap pot | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | pay in a quote | should | Jake | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: 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.
Sentence 2: Fair to pay?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fair | fair | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 2 | to | to | PART | _ | 3 pay | mark |
| 3 | pay | pay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 1 Fair | advcl |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 1 Fair | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pay | to-infinitive | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
The options
Option 1 · ✓ the right answer
Yes, he broke it
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 4 broke | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 broke | nsubj |
| 4 | broke | break | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 broke | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | break | past | he | it | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice
No, Mr Grimshaw should pay for it
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 6 pay | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 No | punct |
| 3 | Mr | Mr | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 pay | nsubj |
| 4 | Grimshaw | Grimshaw | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 Mr | flat |
| 5 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 6 pay | aux |
| 6 | pay | pay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 7 | for | for | ADP | _ | 8 it | case |
| 8 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 pay | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pay | should | Mr | for it | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent for it=Theme |
Option 3
Yes, but only if it's over £100
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 9 £ | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 9 £ | cc |
| 4 | only | only | ADV | _ | 9 £ | advmod |
| 5 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 8 over | mark |
| 6 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 over | nsubj |
| 7 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 over | cop |
| 8 | over | over | ADV | _ | 9 £ | advcl |
| 9 | £ | £ | SYM | _ | root | root |
| 10 | 100 | 100 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 9 £ | nummod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | it | over property | tree rules |
Option 4
No, cheap things like that don't count
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 9 count | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 things | punct |
| 3 | cheap | cheap | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 things | amod |
| 4 | things | thing | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 count | nsubj |
| 5 | like | like | ADP | _ | 6 that | case |
| 6 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 4 things | nmod |
| 7 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 count | aux |
| 8 | n't | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 9 count | advmod |
| 9 | count | count | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not count | present · do-support | cheap things like that | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus |
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/473-the-ball-over-the-fence-and-the-grumpy-old-man-next-door/t9/