Test 1 · Spelling traps: their, there, they're and friends

Your mate goes "they're, their, there, same thing innit, sounds the same." What's the best reply?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: mate, best reply · What happens: go, sound, be · To what, where: same

This is test 1 of lesson 12 «Spelling traps: their, there, they're and friends» 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: Your mate goes "they're, their, there, same thing innit, sounds the same."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 goes	nsubj
3	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 're	punct
5	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 're	nsubj
6	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 goes	advcl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 their	punct
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 goes	advcl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 there	punct
10	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 goes	advmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 innit	punct
12	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 innit	amod
13	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 innit	compound
14	innit	innit	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 there	conj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 sounds	punct
16	sounds	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 goes	conj
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 same	det
18	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 sounds	obj
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 goes	punct
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 goes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	Your mate			there			vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	sound in a quote	present	Your mate not said here	the same					vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location same=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: What's the best reply?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reply	det
4	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 reply	amod
5	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the best reply						tree rules

The options

Option 1

They're is American, their is British

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 American	nsubj
2	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 American	cop
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 American	cop
4	American	American	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 British	punct
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 British	nmod:poss
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 British	cop
8	British	British	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 American	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	They					american property	tree rules
2	is	present	They not said here					british property	tree rules

Option 2

He's right, any of them works because they sound the same

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 works	punct
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 works	nsubj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 them	case
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 any	nmod
8	works	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	conj
9	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 sound	mark
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 sound	nsubj
11	sound	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 works	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 same	det
13	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 sound	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	He		right property	tree rules
2	work	present	any			vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	sound	present	they	the same		vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location same=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They sound alike but mean different things, so writing needs the right one

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sound	nsubj
2	sound	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	alike	alike	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sound	xcomp
4	but	but	CCONJ	_	5 mean	cc
5	mean	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 sound	conj
6	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 things	amod
7	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 mean	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 needs	punct
9	so	so	ADV	_	11 needs	advmod
10	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 needs	nsubj
11	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 sound	parataxis
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 one	det
13	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 one	amod
14	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 needs	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	sound	present	They		alike property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
2	mean	present	They not said here	different things		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Topic
3	need	present	writing	the right one		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot one=Theme

Option 4

Only "there" is a real word

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 there	advmod
2	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 there	punct
3	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 there	punct
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 there	cop
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 word	det
7	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 word	amod
8	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 there	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present						a real word obl:unmarked; there property	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.

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