Test 8 · ★★ · Grammar puzzles, part one
A boomer gran says "Neither the twins nor Tom is coming, dear." Is that right?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: boomer gran, Tom, that · What happens: say, come, be · To what, where: twins · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 8 · ★★ of lesson 11 «Grammar puzzles, part one» 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: A boomer gran says "Neither the twins nor Tom is coming, dear."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 gran | det |
| 2 | boomer | boomer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 gran | compound |
| 3 | gran | gran | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 says | nsubj |
| 4 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 twins | punct |
| 6 | Neither | neither | CCONJ | Polarity=Neg | 8 twins | cc:preconj |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 twins | det |
| 8 | twins | twin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 says | obj |
| 9 | nor | nor | CCONJ | Polarity=Neg | 12 coming | cc |
| 10 | Tom | Tom | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 coming | nsubj |
| 11 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 12 coming | aux |
| 12 | coming | come | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 says | conj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 dear | punct |
| 14 | dear | dear | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 coming | parataxis |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 coming | punct |
| 16 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 coming | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | a boomer gran | the twins | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent twin=Topic | ||||
| 2 | come in a quote | present · progressive | Tom | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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: Is that right?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 right | cop |
| 2 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 right | nsubj |
| 3 | right | right | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 right | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | that | right property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
No, neither always takes "am"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 5 takes | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 takes | punct |
| 3 | neither | neither | CCONJ | Polarity=Neg | 5 takes | cc |
| 4 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 5 takes | advmod |
| 5 | takes | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 am | punct |
| 7 | am | a.m. | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 takes | obj |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 am | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take | present | am | always property | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent a.m.=Theme |
Option 2
No, it must be "are" because the twins are two people
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 14 people | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 No | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 are | nsubj |
| 4 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 are | aux |
| 5 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 7 are | cop |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 are | punct |
| 7 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 people | cop |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 are | punct |
| 9 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 14 people | mark |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 twins | det |
| 11 | twins | twin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 people | nsubj |
| 12 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 people | cop |
| 13 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 14 people | nummod |
| 14 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | the twins | two people | tree rules |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Yes, the verb agrees with Tom, the closer subject
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 5 agrees | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 verb | det |
| 4 | verb | verb | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 agrees | nsubj |
| 5 | agrees | agree | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | with | with | ADP | _ | 7 Tom | case |
| 7 | Tom | Tom | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 agrees | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 subject | punct |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 subject | det |
| 10 | closer | close | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 11 subject | amod |
| 11 | subject | subject | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 Tom | appos |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | agree speech: agree | present | the verb | with Tom | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent how S»: agent=Agent with tom=Co-Agent |
Option 4
Yes, but only because she's a gran
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 9 gran | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 9 gran | cc |
| 4 | only | only | ADV | _ | 9 gran | advmod |
| 5 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 9 gran | mark |
| 6 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 gran | nsubj |
| 7 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 gran | cop |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 gran | det |
| 9 | gran | gran | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | she | a gran | 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/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/t8/