Test 8 · ★ · Punctuation that changes meaning
Your cousin writes "What time is it?." Which is right?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: cousin · What happens: write, time, be · To what, where: cousin
This is test 8 · ★ 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: Your cousin writes "What time is it?."
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 cousin | nmod:poss |
| 2 | cousin | cousin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 writes | nsubj |
| 3 | writes | write | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 time | punct |
| 5 | What | what | DET | PronType=Int | 6 time | det |
| 6 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 writes | obj |
| 7 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 it | cop |
| 8 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 time | nsubj |
| 9 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 6 time | punct |
| 10 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 writes | punct |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 writes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | write | present | Your cousin | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | time in a quote | cousin | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | is a in a quote | present | cousin | tree rules |
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: Which is right?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 3 right | nsubj |
| 2 | is | 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 | _ | 3 right | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | right property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
What time is it?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | DET | PronType=Int | 2 time | det |
| 2 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 is | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 is | expl |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 is | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | present | what time | it | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
Option 2
What time is it!.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | DET | PronType=Int | 2 time | det |
| 2 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 it | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 it | cop |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | root | root |
| 5 | !. | !. | PUNCT | _ | 4 it | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | what time | it | tree rules |
Option 3
What time is it.?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | DET | PronType=Int | 2 time | det |
| 2 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 it | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 it | cop |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | root | root |
| 5 | .? | .? | PUNCT | _ | 4 it | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | what time | it | tree rules |
Option 4
What time is it?.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | DET | PronType=Int | 2 time | det |
| 2 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 is | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 is | expl |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 is | punct |
| 6 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 is | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | present | what time | it | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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/t8/