Exam question 4 · Grammar puzzles, part one

In respect of the sentence "Neither the cat nor the dogs ___ hungry", determine the verb form required by the rule of proximity.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, verb, proximity · What happens: determine, form, require, respect, rule · To what, where: respect, sentence

This is exam question 4 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	In	in	ADP	_	2 respect	case
2	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 determine	obl
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 sentence	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sentence	det
5	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 respect	nmod
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 cat	punct
7	Neither	neither	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	9 cat	cc:preconj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 cat	det
9	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sentence	appos
10	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	12 dogs	cc
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 dogs	det
12	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 cat	conj
13	_	_	PUNCT	_	9 cat	punct
14	_	_	PUNCT	_	16 hungry	punct
15	_	_	PUNCT	_	16 hungry	punct
16	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 sentence	parataxis
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 hungry	punct
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 respect	punct
19	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 verb	det
21	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 form	nsubj
22	form	form	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 determine	ccomp
23	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	22 form	xcomp
24	by	by	ADP	_	26 rule	case
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 rule	det
26	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 required	obl
27	of	of	ADP	_	28 proximity	case
28	proximity	proximity	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 rule	nmod
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	19 determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here		respect of the sentence		vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	form	present	the verb				tree rules
3	require	participle	the verb not said here			by the rule of proximity	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme
4	respect			the sentence			nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient
5	rule		proximity				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

was

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	past							vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	be	be	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	imperative	you not said here						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	present							vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

are

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	are	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	present							vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/e4/