Exam question 2 · Spelling traps: their, there, they're and friends

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the form "it's"?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: form

This is exam question 2 of lesson 12 «Spelling traps: their, there, they're and friends» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Which	nmod
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 form	det
10	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 "	nsubj
13	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 "	cop
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the form				accurately property	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

A plural of the word "it"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 plural	det
2	plural	plural	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 word	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 word	det
5	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 plural	nmod
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 it	punct
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 word	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 it	punct

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

The possessive form of "it"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 form	det
2	possessive	possessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 form	amod
3	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 it	case
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 it	punct
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 form	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 form	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	form			form					nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

An archaic spelling of "its"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 spelling	det
2	archaic	archaic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 spelling	amod
3	spelling	spelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 its	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 its	case
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 its	punct
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	root	root
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 its	punct

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A contraction of "it is" or "it has"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 contraction	det
2	contraction	contraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 has	nsubj
3	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 is	mark
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 is	punct
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 is	nsubj
6	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 has	advcl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 is	punct
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	11 has	cc
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 has	punct
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 has	nsubj
11	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 has	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be in a quote	present	contraction						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	have in a quote	present	a contraction						vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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/12-spelling-traps-their-there-theyre/e2/