Exam question 3 · Grammar puzzles, part one

Select the formulation consistent with the rules of agreement in standard English.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, agreement · What happens: select, rule · To what, where: formulation

This is exam question 3 of lesson 11 «Grammar puzzles, part one» 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 formulation	det
3	formulation	formulation	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 rules	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 rules	det
7	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 agreement	case
9	agreement	agreement	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 rules	nmod
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 English	case
11	standard	standard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 English	amod
12	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 agreement	nmod
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the formulation				consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent formulation=Theme
2	rule		agreement in standard English						nom rule «cognition intransitive»: of=agent

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

Each of the boys have a bicycle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	4 boys	det
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 boys	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boys	det
4	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 have	nsubj
5	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bicycle	det
7	bicycle	bicycle	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	each boys	a bicycle					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bicycle=Patient

Option 2

Each one of the boy have a bicycle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 one	det
2	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 have	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 boy	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 boy	det
5	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 one	nmod
6	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 bicycle	det
8	bicycle	bicycle	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	each one of the boy	a bicycle					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bicycle=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Each of the boys has a bicycle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	5 has	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 boys	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boys	det
4	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Each	nmod
5	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bicycle	det
7	bicycle	bicycle	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 has	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Each	a bicycle					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bicycle=Patient

Option 4

Each of the boys are having bicycles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	6 having	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 boys	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boys	det
4	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Each	nmod
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 having	aux
6	having	have	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
7	bicycles	bicycle	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 having	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present · progressive	Each	bicycles					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bicycle=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/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/e3/