Exam question 4 · Nouns: the names of things, people, places and ideas

In respect of the expressions "the team are" and "the team is", which statement is consistent with the established facts?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: statement · What happens: be, establish, respect · To what, where: expressions

This is exam question 4 of lesson 2 «Nouns: the names of things, people, places and ideas» 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	In	in	ADP	_	2 respect	case
2	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 expressions	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 expressions	det
5	expressions	expression	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 respect	nmod
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 team	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 team	det
8	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 expressions	conj
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 "	cop
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 expressions	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 team	cc
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 team	punct
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 team	det
14	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 expressions	conj
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 "	cop
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 team	punct
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 consistent	punct
18	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	19 statement	det
19	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 consistent	nsubj
20	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 consistent	cop
21	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 team	acl:relcl
22	with	with	ADP	_	25 facts	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 facts	det
24	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	25 facts	amod
25	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 consistent	obl
26	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 respect	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	which statement		with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	respect			the expressions and the team and the team		nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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

The former is common in British usage and the latter in American usage, and both are acceptable

The tree, 17 words

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 common	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 common	cop
4	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 usage	case
6	British	British	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 usage	amod
7	usage	usage	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 common	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 latter	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 latter	det
10	latter	latter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 common	conj
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 usage	case
12	American	American	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 usage	amod
13	usage	usage	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 latter	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 acceptable	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 acceptable	cc
16	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	18 acceptable	nsubj
17	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 acceptable	cop
18	acceptable	acceptable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 common	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	the former	British usage	common property	tree rules
2	be		the former not said here	American usage		tree rules
3	is	present	both		acceptable property	tree rules

Option 2

The former is invariably erroneous in every variety of English

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	5 erroneous	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 erroneous	cop
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 erroneous	advmod
5	erroneous	erroneous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 variety	case
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 variety	det
8	variety	variety	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 erroneous	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 English	case
10	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 variety	nmod

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

Option 3

The latter is invariably erroneous in every variety of English

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	5 erroneous	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 erroneous	cop
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 erroneous	advmod
5	erroneous	erroneous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 variety	case
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 variety	det
8	variety	variety	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 erroneous	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 English	case
10	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 variety	nmod

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

Option 4

Both expressions are erroneous and ought to be avoided

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 expressions	det
2	expressions	expression	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 erroneous	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 erroneous	cop
4	erroneous	erroneous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 avoided	cc
6	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 avoided	aux
7	to	to	PART	_	9 avoided	mark
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 avoided	aux:pass
9	avoided	avoid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 erroneous	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	both expressions					erroneous property	tree rules
2	avoid	ought · passive	both expressions not said here						vn avoid-52 «NP V S_ING»

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/2-nouns-names-of-things-people-places-ideas/e4/