Exam question 1 · Le, la, un, une: every word is a boy or a girl

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

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: grammatical gender, French

This is exam question 1 of lesson 25 «Le, la, un, une: every word is a boy or a girl» 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	grammatical	grammatical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 gender	amod
10	gender	gender	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 French	case
12	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 gender	nmod
13	?	?	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		grammatical gender		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 · ← Mova's choice

A property governed by the size of the referent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 property	det
2	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	governed	govern	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 property	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 size	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 size	det
6	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 governed	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 referent	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 referent	det
9	referent	referent	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 size	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	govern	participle		a property not said here				by the size of the referent	vn supervision-95.2.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 2

A property determined by the sex of the referent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 property	det
2	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	determined	determine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 property	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 sex	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sex	det
6	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 determined	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 referent	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 referent	det
9	referent	referent	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 sex	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	determine	participle		a property not said here				by the sex of the referent	vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	sex			the referent					nom sex «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A property of each noun, independent of the sex of its referent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 property	det
2	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 noun	case
4	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	5 noun	det
5	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 property	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 independent	punct
7	independent	independent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 noun	amod
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 sex	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 sex	det
10	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 independent	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 referent	case
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 referent	nmod:poss
13	referent	referent	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 sex	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sex			sex's referent					nom sex «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

A property applied exclusively to persons and animals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 property	det
2	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	applied	apply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 property	acl
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 applied	advmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 persons	case
6	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 applied	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 animals	cc
8	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 persons	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	apply	participle		a property not said here				to persons and animals; exclusively property	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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.

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