Test 5 · What language is: sounds, words and rules everyone shares
Gran goes "back in my day babies just made noise till you taught 'em words." What is true?
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: Gran, you · What happens: go, make, teach, be · To what, where: noise, day babies, words, 'em · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 5 of lesson 1 «What language is: sounds, words and rules everyone shares» of the language course of Mova's primary school. 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
Sentence 1: Gran goes "back in my day babies just made noise till you taught 'em words."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gran | gran | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 goes | nsubj |
| 2 | goes | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 back | punct |
| 4 | back | back | ADV | _ | 2 goes | advmod |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 babies | case |
| 6 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 babies | nmod:poss |
| 7 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 babies | compound |
| 8 | babies | baby | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 made | obl |
| 9 | just | just | ADV | _ | 10 made | advmod |
| 10 | made | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 goes | parataxis |
| 11 | noise | noise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 made | obj |
| 12 | till | till | SCONJ | _ | 14 taught | mark |
| 13 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 14 taught | nsubj |
| 14 | taught | teach | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 made | advcl |
| 15 | 'em | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 taught | obj |
| 16 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 taught | obj |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 goes | punct |
| 18 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 goes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | present | Gran | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | make in a quote | past | noise | my day babies | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset noise=Product | ||||
| 3 | teach speech: other in a quote | past | you | words | 'em = they | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient word=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.
Sentence 2: What is true?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 true | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 true | cop |
| 3 | true | true | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 true | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | true property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1
Gran is right, babbling is meaningless noise with no purpose
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gran | Gran | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 right | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 right | cop |
| 3 | right | right | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 noise | punct |
| 5 | babbling | babbling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 noise | nsubj |
| 6 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 noise | cop |
| 7 | meaningless | meaningless | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 noise | amod |
| 8 | noise | noise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 right | conj |
| 9 | with | with | ADP | _ | 11 purpose | case |
| 10 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 11 purpose | det |
| 11 | purpose | purpose | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 noise | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | Gran | right property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | is a | present | babbling | meaningless noise | with no purpose | tree rules |
Option 2
Babies only learn words from flashcards
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Babies | baby | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 learn | nsubj |
| 2 | only | only | ADV | _ | 3 learn | advmod |
| 3 | learn | learn | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 learn | obj |
| 5 | from | from | ADP | _ | 6 flashcards | case |
| 6 | flashcards | flashcard | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 learn | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | learn | present | Babies | words | flashcards | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent word=Topic from flashcard=Source |
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
Babies practise speech sounds by babbling before words
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Babies | baby | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 practise | nsubj |
| 2 | practise | practise | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | speech | speech | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sounds | compound |
| 4 | sounds | sound | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 practise | obj |
| 5 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 6 babbling | mark |
| 6 | babbling | babble | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 practise | advcl |
| 7 | before | before | ADP | _ | 8 words | case |
| 8 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 babbling | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | practise | present | Babies | speech sounds | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | babble | gerund | Babies not said here | words | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before word=Location |
Option 4
Babies cannot hear speech sounds until age two
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Babies | baby | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 hear | nsubj |
| 2 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 hear | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 4 hear | advmod |
| 4 | hear | hear | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | speech | speech | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 sounds | compound |
| 6 | sounds | sound | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 hear | obj |
| 7 | until | until | ADP | _ | 8 age | case |
| 8 | age | age | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 hear | obl |
| 9 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 8 age | flat |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not hear | can | Babies | speech sounds | until age | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |
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/t5/