Exam question 4 · Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the plural "children".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, plural children

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 children	det
11	plural	plural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 children	amod
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 children	punct
13	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 concerning	obj
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 children	punct
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the plural children		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus child=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

It is unrelated to the word "child"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 unrelated	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 unrelated	cop
3	unrelated	unrelated	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 word	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 word	det
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 unrelated	obl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 child	punct
8	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 word	appos
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 child	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					to the word; unrelated property	tree rules

Option 2

It is formed by the regular addition of "-s"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 formed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 formed	aux:pass
3	formed	form	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 addition	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 addition	det
6	regular	regular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 addition	amod
7	addition	addition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 formed	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 -s	case
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 -s	punct
10	-s	-	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 addition	nmod
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 addition	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	form	present · passive	the regular addition of -s	It					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location subject=Theme

Option 3

It is a modern invention of the twentieth century

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 invention	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 invention	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 invention	det
4	modern	modern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 invention	amod
5	invention	invention	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 century	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 century	det
8	twentieth	twentieth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 century	amod
9	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 invention	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a modern invention			century		tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It combines an Old English plural with a further plural ending in "-en"

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 combines	nsubj
2	combines	combine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 plural	det
4	Old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 plural	amod
5	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 plural	amod
6	plural	plural	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 combines	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	11 ending	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 ending	det
9	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 ending	amod
10	plural	plural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 ending	amod
11	ending	ending	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 combines	obl
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 en	case
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 en	punct
14	-	-	PUNCT	_	15 en	punct
15	en	en	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 ending	nmod
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 en	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	combine	present	It	a Old English plural				with a further plural ending in en	vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent plural=Patient with ending=Co-Patient

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/e4/