Exam question 3 · The apostrophe war

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the possessive forms "James's" and "James'".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, form · To what, where: response, possessive

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 forms	csubj
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 possessive	det
11	possessive	possessive	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	forms	form	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Select	advcl
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 James	punct
14	James	James	PROPN	Number=Sing	19 James	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 James	case
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 James	punct
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 James	cc
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 James	punct
19	James	James	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 forms	parataxis
20	'	'	PUNCT	_	19 James	punct
21	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 James	punct
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle			vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the possessive	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus possessive=Experiencer
4	form	present	you not said here		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 · ✓ the right answer

Both are in use, consistency within a text being the principal requirement

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	4 use	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 use	cop
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 use	case
4	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 requirement	nsubj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 consistency	punct
6	consistency	consistency	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 use	conj
7	within	within	ADP	_	9 text	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 text	det
9	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 consistency	nmod
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 requirement	cop
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 requirement	det
12	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 requirement	amod
13	requirement	requirement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Both			use and consistency within a text			tree rules
2	is a	gerund	use and consistency within a text	the principal requirement					tree rules

Option 2

The latter is erroneous in every circumstance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 latter	det
2	latter	latter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 erroneous	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 erroneous	cop
4	erroneous	erroneous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 circumstance	case
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 circumstance	det
7	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 erroneous	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the latter			every circumstance		erroneous property	tree rules

Option 3

The former is erroneous in every circumstance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 former	det
2	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 erroneous	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 erroneous	cop
4	erroneous	erroneous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 circumstance	case
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 circumstance	det
7	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 erroneous	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the former			every circumstance		erroneous property	tree rules

Option 4

Both forms are prohibited by law

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 forms	det
2	forms	form	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 prohibited	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 prohibited	aux:pass
4	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 law	case
6	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 prohibited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive	law	both forms					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=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/15-the-apostrophe-war/e3/