Exam question 4 · Punctuation that changes meaning

In respect of the sentence "The teacher, said the pupil, is a fool", ascertain the person to whom the epithet "fool" is applied.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: pupil · What happens: say, be, ascertain, apply, respect · To what, where: respect, fool, person, epithet, sentence · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 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	In	in	ADP	_	2 respect	case
2	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 said	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	_	8 teacher	punct
7	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 teacher	det
8	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sentence	appos
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 respect	punct
10	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 pupil	det
12	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 fool	nsubj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 pupil	punct
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 fool	cop
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 fool	det
16	fool	fool	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 said	ccomp
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 fool	punct
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 ascertain	punct
19	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 said	conj
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 person	det
21	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 ascertain	obj
22	to	to	ADP	_	23 whom	case
23	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	19 ascertain	obl
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 epithet	det
25	epithet	epithet	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 applied	nsubj:pass
26	"	"	PUNCT	_	27 fool	punct
27	fool	fool	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 epithet	appos
28	"	"	PUNCT	_	27 fool	punct
29	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	30 applied	aux:pass
30	applied	apply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	23 whom	acl:relcl
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 said	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	past			respect of the sentence	vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in respect=Manner
2	is a in a quote	present	the pupil	a fool		tree rules
3	ascertain	infinitive		the person		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Topic
4	apply	present · passive		the epithet		vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
5	respect			the sentence		nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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 · ✓ the right answer

The teacher

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 teacher	det
2	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 2

Neither person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Neither	neither	DET	PronType=Neg	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

The pupil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pupil	det
2	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 4

Both persons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 persons	det
2	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

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/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/e4/