Exam question 2 · Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese

Identify the principal reason for which the plural of "mongoose" is not "mongeese".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, principal reason · What happens: identify, not be · To what, where: principal reason, mongeese

This is exam question 2 of lesson 10 «Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 mongeese	nsubj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 plural	det
8	plural	plural	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 mongeese	nsubj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 mongoose	case
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 mongoose	punct
11	mongoose	mongoose	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 plural	nmod
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 mongoose	punct
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 mongeese	cop
14	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 mongeese	advmod
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 mongeese	punct
16	mongeese	mongeese	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reason	appos
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 mongeese	punct
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	not is a in a quote	present	the principal reason	mongeese					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 · ✓ the right answer

The word derives from Marathi and bears no relation to the English word "goose"

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 derives	nsubj
3	derives	derive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	5 Marathi	case
5	Marathi	Marathi	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 derives	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 bears	cc
7	bears	bear	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 Marathi	conj
8	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 relation	det
9	relation	relation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 derives	obj
10	to	to	ADP	_	13 word	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 word	det
12	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 word	amod
13	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 derives	obl
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 goose	punct
15	goose	goose	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 word	appos
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 goose	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	derive	present	the word	no relation		Marathi and bears		to the English word	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: agent=Agent relation=Result from marathi=Material

Option 2

The form "mongeese" is reserved for formal registers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 form	det
2	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 reserved	nsubj:pass
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 mongeese	punct
4	mongeese	mongeese	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 form	appos
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 mongeese	punct
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 reserved	aux:pass
7	reserved	reserve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	for	for	ADP	_	10 registers	case
9	formal	formal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 registers	amod
10	registers	register	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 reserved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reserve	present · passive		the form				for formal registers	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: subject=Theme for register=Beneficiary

Option 3

The word possesses no plural form whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	nsubj
3	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 form	det
5	plural	plural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 form	amod
6	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	obj
7	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 possesses	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the word	no plural form				whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot form=Theme

Option 4

The animal is too small to merit an irregular plural

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 small	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 small	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 small	advmod
5	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 merit	mark
7	merit	merit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 small	advcl
8	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 plural	det
9	irregular	irregular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 plural	amod
10	plural	plural	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 merit	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the animal					small property	tree rules
2	merit	to-infinitive	the animal not said here	a irregular plural					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/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/e2/