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Test 6 · ★ · Punctuation that changes meaning

A boomer neighbour's sign says "Slow children at play." What makes it funny, and what's the fix?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sign, boomer neighbour · What happens: say, sign, make, be · To what, where: neighbour, fix · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 6 · ★ 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 boomer neighbour's sign says "Slow children at play."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 neighbour	det
2	boomer	boomer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 neighbour	compound
3	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sign	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 neighbour	case
5	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 says	nsubj
6	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 children	punct
8	Slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 children	amod
9	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 says	ccomp
10	at	at	ADP	_	11 play	case
11	play	play	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 children	nmod
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 children	punct
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 children	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	a boomer neighbour's sign						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	sign		a boomer neighbour						nom sign «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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 makes it funny, and what's the fix?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	2 makes	nsubj
2	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 makes	obj
4	funny	funny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 makes	xcomp
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 fix	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 fix	cc
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	10 fix	nsubj
8	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 fix	cop
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 fix	det
10	fix	fix	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 makes	parataxis
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 makes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present		neighbour				funny property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material it=Product
2	is a	present		the fix					tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The sign should say "Fast children"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sign	det
2	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 say	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 children	punct
6	Fast	fast	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 children	amod
7	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 say	obj
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 children	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	should	the sign	Fast children					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent child=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It sounds like the children are slow; "Slow: children at play"

The tree, 11 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sounds	nsubj
2	sounds	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	like	like	SCONJ	_	7 slow	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 children	det
5	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 slow	nsubj
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 slow	cop
7	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sounds	advcl
8	;	;	PUNCT	_	10 Slow	punct
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 Slow	punct
10	Slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sounds	conj
11	:	:	PUNCT	_	12 children	punct
12	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sounds	obl
13	at	at	ADP	_	14 play	case
14	play	play	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 children	nmod
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 sounds	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sound	present	It	children at play					vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus
2	is	present	the children					slow property	tree rules

Option 3

Nothing is funny about it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 funny	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 funny	cop
3	funny	funny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	about	about	ADP	_	5 it	case
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 funny	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Nothing					about it; funny property	tree rules

Option 4

Children never play near roads

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 play	nsubj
2	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 play	advmod
3	play	play	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	near	near	ADP	_	5 roads	case
5	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 play	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not play	present	Children			roads			vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: 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/t6/