Exam question 1 · Olympiad: gender-pattern puzzles ★★★

Ascertain the gender of the noun "chaussette" on the basis of its terminal syllable.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain · To what, where: gender, basis

This is exam question 1 of lesson 38 «Olympiad: gender-pattern puzzles ★★★» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 gender	det
3	gender	gender	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 noun	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 noun	det
6	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 gender	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 chaussette	punct
8	chaussette	chaussette	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 noun	appos
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 chaussette	punct
10	on	on	ADP	_	12 basis	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 basis	det
12	basis	basis	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 syllable	case
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 syllable	nmod:poss
15	terminal	terminal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 syllable	amod
16	syllable	syllable	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 basis	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the gender of the noun		the basis of basis's terminal syllable			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gender=Topic

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

Indeterminable without a dictionary

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Indeterminable	indeterminable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	without	without	ADP	_	4 dictionary	case
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 dictionary	det
4	dictionary	dictionary	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Indeterminable	obl

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Feminine, the ending -ette being characteristic thereof

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Feminine	Feminine	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 characteristic	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ette	det
4	ending	ending	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ette	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 ette	punct
6	ette	ette	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characteristic	nsubj
7	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 characteristic	cop
8	characteristic	characteristic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Feminine	conj
9	thereof	thereof	ADV	_	8 characteristic	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	gerund	the ending ette					characteristic, thereof property	tree rules

Option 3

Feminine, by reason of its meaning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Feminine	Feminine	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 reason	punct
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 reason	case
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Feminine	appos
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 meaning	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 meaning	nmod:poss
7	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reason	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean		reason						nom meaning «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Masculine, the ending -ette being characteristic thereof

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Masculine	Masculine	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 characteristic	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Masculine	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ette	det
4	ending	ending	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ette	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 ette	punct
6	ette	ette	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characteristic	nsubj
7	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 characteristic	cop
8	characteristic	characteristic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	thereof	thereof	ADV	_	8 characteristic	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	gerund	Masculine					characteristic, thereof property	tree rules

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/38-olympiad-gender-pattern-puzzles/e1/