Test 4 · ★ · Punctuation that changes meaning
A Scouse lad writes "Our kid, who's sound, fixed me bike." ("Our kid" means my brother, "sound" means nice.) What do the commas show?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Scouse lad, kid, sound, commas · What happens: write, be, fix, mean, show · To what, where: sound, bike, me, brother
This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 14 «Punctuation that changes meaning» 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 Scouse lad writes "Our kid, who's sound, fixed me bike."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 lad | det |
| 2 | Scouse | scouse | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 lad | compound |
| 3 | lad | lad | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 writes | nsubj |
| 4 | writes | write | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 fixed | punct |
| 6 | Our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 kid | nmod:poss |
| 7 | kid | kid | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 fixed | nsubj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 sound | punct |
| 9 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 11 sound | nsubj |
| 10 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 sound | cop |
| 11 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 kid | conj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 kid | punct |
| 13 | fixed | fix | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 writes | conj |
| 14 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 fixed | obj |
| 15 | bike | bike | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 fixed | obj |
| 16 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 writes | punct |
| 17 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 writes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | write | present | a Scouse lad | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is a in a quote | present | Our kid and sound | sound | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | fix in a quote | past | Our kid and sound | bike | me | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary bike=Product |
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: ("Our kid" means my brother, "sound" means nice.)
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 6 means | punct |
| 2 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 kid | punct |
| 3 | Our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 4 kid | nmod:poss |
| 4 | kid | kid | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 means | nsubj |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 kid | punct |
| 6 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 brother | nmod:poss |
| 8 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 means | obj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 means | punct |
| 10 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 sound | punct |
| 11 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 means | nsubj |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 sound | punct |
| 13 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 means | conj |
| 14 | nice | nice | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 means | xcomp |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 means | punct |
| 16 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 6 means | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | Our kid | my brother | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brother=Topic | ||||
| 2 | mean | present | sound | nice property | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
Sentence 3: What do the commas show?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 5 show | obj |
| 2 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 What | cop |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 commas | det |
| 4 | commas | comma | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 show | nsubj |
| 5 | show | show | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 show | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | tree rules | ||||||
| 2 | show | present | the commas | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
A question
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 question | det |
| 2 | question | question | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
Extra information about his brother
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Extra | extra | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 information | amod |
| 2 | information | information | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | about | about | ADP | _ | 5 brother | case |
| 4 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 brother | nmod:poss |
| 5 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 information | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
A list of three people
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 list | det |
| 2 | list | list | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 people | case |
| 4 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 5 people | nummod |
| 5 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 list | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | list | three people | nom list «communication transitive»: of=patient |
Option 4
That he has many brothers to choose from
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | That | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 has | nsubj |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 has | nsubj |
| 3 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 brothers | amod |
| 5 | brothers | brother | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 has | obj |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 choose | mark |
| 7 | choose | choose | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 brothers | acl |
| 8 | from | from | ADP | _ | 7 choose | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | present | That | many brothers | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brother=Patient | ||||
| 2 | choose | to-infinitive | That not said here | many brothers not said here | vn get-13.5.1 «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/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/t4/