Exam question 3 · Punctuation that changes meaning

Select the response consistent with the established conventions concerning the sentence "Can I come?.".

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, established conventions, I · What happens: select, establish, concern, come · To what, where: sentence · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 14 «Punctuation that changes meaning» 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	4 consistent	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consistent	obl:unmarked
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	ccomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 conventions	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 conventions	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 conventions	amod
8	conventions	convention	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 conventions	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sentence	det
11	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 come	punct
13	Can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 come	aux
14	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	15 come	nsubj
15	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 consistent	parataxis
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	15 come	punct
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	establish	participle			vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established conventions not said here	the sentence	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sentence=Experiencer
4	come in a quote	can	I		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.

The options

Option 1

A further question mark is required

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 mark	det
2	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 mark	amod
3	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mark	compound
4	mark	mark	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 required	nsubj:pass
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 required	aux:pass
6	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present · passive		a further question mark					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Precondition

Option 2

The question mark ought to be replaced by a comma

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 mark	det
2	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mark	compound
3	mark	mark	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 replaced	nsubj:pass
4	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 replaced	aux
5	to	to	PART	_	7 replaced	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 replaced	aux:pass
7	replaced	replace	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 comma	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 comma	det
10	comma	comma	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 replaced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	replace	ought · passive	a comma	the question mark					vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme

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

The full stop is superfluous, the question mark already concluding the sentence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 stop	det
2	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stop	amod
3	stop	stop	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 superfluous	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 superfluous	cop
5	superfluous	superfluous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 mark	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 mark	det
8	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 mark	compound
9	mark	mark	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 superfluous	conj
10	already	already	ADV	_	11 concluding	advmod
11	concluding	conclude	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 mark	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sentence	det
13	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concluding	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the full stop					superfluous property	tree rules
2	conclude	gerund	the question mark not said here	the sentence					vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sentence=Theme

Option 4

The sentence is correctly punctuated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sentence	det
2	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 punctuated	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 punctuated	aux:pass
4	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	5 punctuated	advmod
5	punctuated	punctuate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	punctuate	present · passive		the sentence				correctly property	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: subject=Destination

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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