Exam question 1 · The apostrophe war

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the functions of the apostrophe?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: functions

This is exam question 1 of lesson 15 «The apostrophe war» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 functions	det
10	functions	function	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 apostrophe	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 apostrophe	det
13	apostrophe	apostrophe	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 functions	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the functions of the apostrophe				of the following statements; accurately property	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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

It denotes the plural number of nouns

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 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 number	det
4	plural	plural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 number	amod
5	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 denotes	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 nouns	case
7	nouns	noun	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 number	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It	the plural number of nouns					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot number=Topic

Option 2

It separates items enumerated in a list

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 separates	nsubj
2	separates	separate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	items	item	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 separates	obj
4	enumerated	enumerate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 items	acl
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 list	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 list	det
7	list	list	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 enumerated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	separate	present	It	items					vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent item=Patient
2	enumerate	participle		items not said here		a list			tree rules

Option 3

It indicates an interrogative sentence

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 indicates	nsubj
2	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 sentence	det
4	interrogative	interrogative	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 sentence	amod
5	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 indicates	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	It	a interrogative sentence					vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot sentence=Topic

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It denotes the omission of letters or indicates possession

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 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 omission	det
4	omission	omission	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 denotes	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 letters	case
6	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 omission	nmod
7	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 indicates	cc
8	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 denotes	conj
9	possession	possession	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 indicates	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	denote	present	It	the omission of letters	vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot omission=Topic
2	indicate	present		possession	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot possession=Topic
3	omit			letters	nom omission «act transitive»: of=patient

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/15-the-apostrophe-war/e1/