Exam question 1 · Colours

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the position of colour adjectives in French?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: position

This is exam question 1 of lesson 9 «Colours» 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	10 position	det
10	position	position	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 adjectives	case
12	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 adjectives	compound
13	adjectives	adjective	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 position	nmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	15 French	case
15	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 adjectives	nmod
16	?	?	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 position of colour adjectives 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 · ← Mova's choice

They are placed at the close of the sentence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 placed	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 placed	aux:pass
3	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 close	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 close	det
6	close	close	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 placed	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 sentence	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sentence	det
9	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 close	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	present · passive		They		the close of the sentence			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme at close=Destination

Option 2

They are omitted where the colour is evident

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 omitted	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 omitted	aux:pass
3	omitted	omit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	8 evident	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 colour	det
6	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 evident	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 evident	cop
8	evident	evident	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 omitted	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	omit	present · passive		They					vn exclude-107.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	is	present	the colour					evident property	tree rules

Option 3

They are customarily placed before the noun they qualify

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 placed	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 placed	aux:pass
3	customarily	customarily	ADV	_	4 placed	advmod
4	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	before	before	ADP	_	7 noun	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 noun	det
7	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 placed	obl
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 qualify	nsubj
9	qualify	qualify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 noun	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	present · passive		They		the noun		customarily property	vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme before noun=Destination
2	qualify	present	they	the noun not said here					tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They are customarily placed after the noun they qualify

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 placed	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 placed	aux:pass
3	customarily	customarily	ADV	_	4 placed	advmod
4	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	after	after	ADP	_	7 noun	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 noun	det
7	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 placed	obl
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 qualify	nsubj
9	qualify	qualify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 noun	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	present · passive		They			after the noun	customarily property	vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme
2	qualify	present	they	the noun not said here					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/9-colours/e1/