Exam question 1 · Pets and animals

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the grammatical gender of animal nouns in French?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: grammatical gender

This is exam question 1 of lesson 15 «Pets and animals» of the French 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 gender	det
10	grammatical	grammatical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 gender	amod
11	gender	gender	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 nouns	case
13	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 nouns	compound
14	nouns	noun	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 gender	nmod
15	in	in	ADP	_	16 French	case
16	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 nouns	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the grammatical gender of animal nouns in French				of the following statements; accurately 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

It is determined in each instance by the sex of the animal

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 determined	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 determined	aux:pass
3	determined	determine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 instance	case
5	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	6 instance	det
6	instance	instance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 determined	obl
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 sex	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sex	det
9	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 determined	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 animal	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 animal	det
12	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 sex	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	determine	present · passive	the sex of the animal	It		each instance			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic
2	sex			the animal					nom sex «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It is feminine for all domestic animals

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 feminine	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 feminine	cop
3	feminine	feminine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	7 animals	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 animals	det
6	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 animals	amod
7	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 feminine	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					for all domestic animals; feminine property	tree rules

Option 3

It is masculine for all animals without exception

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 masculine	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 masculine	cop
3	masculine	masculine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 animals	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 animals	det
6	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 masculine	obl
7	without	without	ADP	_	8 exception	case
8	exception	exception	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 masculine	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					for all animals; without exception; masculine property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It belongs to the noun and is independent of the sex of the animal

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 noun	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 noun	det
5	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 belongs	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 independent	cc
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 independent	cop
8	independent	independent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 belongs	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 sex	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sex	det
11	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 independent	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 animal	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 animal	det
14	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 sex	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	belong	present	It		to the noun	vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme
2	is	present			of the sex of the animal; independent property	tree rules
3	sex			the animal		nom sex «act transitive»: of=patient

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/french/15-pets-and-animals/e1/