Exam question 3 · What language is: sounds, words and rules everyone shares

Given the sentences "The dog bit the man" and "The man bit the dog", select the response consistent with the established facts concerning English grammar.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Given sentences, man, established facts · What happens: give, bite, select, establish, concern · To what, where: man, dog, response, English grammar

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1 «What language is: sounds, words and rules everyone shares» of the language 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 sentences	amod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sentences	det
3	sentences	sentence	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 bit	nsubj
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 bit	punct
5	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 dog	det
6	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bit	nsubj
7	bit	bite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 man	det
9	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bit	obj
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 man	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 bit	cc
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 bit	punct
13	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 man	det
14	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 bit	nsubj
15	bit	bite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 bit	conj
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 dog	det
17	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 bit	obj
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 dog	punct
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 select	punct
20	select	select	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 bit	conj
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 response	det
22	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 select	obj
23	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 select	xcomp
24	with	with	ADP	_	27 facts	case
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 facts	det
26	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	27 facts	amod
27	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 consistent	obl
28	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	27 facts	acl
29	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 grammar	amod
30	grammar	grammar	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 concerning	obj
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 bit	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	participle				vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	bite in a quote	past	the Given sentences	the man		vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient
3	bite in a quote	past	the man	the dog		vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Patient
4	select	infinitive	the man not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
5	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
6	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	English grammar		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus grammar=Experiencer

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

Word order in English bears no relation to meaning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 order	compound
2	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 bears	case
4	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 bears	compound
5	bears	bear	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 order	nmod
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 relation	det
7	relation	relation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bears	conj
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 meaning	case
9	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 relation	nmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The position before the verb ordinarily designates the performer of the action

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 position	det
2	position	position	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 designates	nsubj
3	before	before	ADP	_	5 verb	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 verb	det
5	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 position	nmod
6	ordinarily	ordinarily	ADV	_	7 designates	advmod
7	designates	designate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 performer	det
9	performer	performer	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 designates	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 action	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 action	det
12	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 performer	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	designate	present	the position before the verb	the performer of the action				ordinarily property	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent performer=Theme

Option 3

The second sentence is ungrammatical and therefore meaningless

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sentence	det
2	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	3 sentence	amod
3	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ungrammatical	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 ungrammatical	cop
5	ungrammatical	ungrammatical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 meaningless	cc
7	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	8 meaningless	advmod
8	meaningless	meaningless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 ungrammatical	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the second sentence					ungrammatical property	tree rules
2	be		the second sentence not said here					therefore property	tree rules

Option 4

The two sentences are identical in meaning in every respect, whatever the order

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sentences	det
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 sentences	nummod
3	sentences	sentence	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 identical	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 identical	cop
5	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 meaning	case
7	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 identical	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 respect	case
9	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	10 respect	det
10	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 meaning	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 whatever	punct
12	whatever	whatever	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 identical	parataxis
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 order	det
14	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 whatever	nsubj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the two sentences			meaning in every respect		identical 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/language/1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules/e3/