Test 6 · Nouns: the names of things, people, places and ideas

A cartoon narrator says "Look, a murder of crows!" and everyone in the park nods. Is that how people really talk?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cartoon narrator, everyone, people · What happens: say, look, nod, murder, be · To what, where: murder, crows · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 6 of lesson 2 «Nouns: the names of things, people, places and ideas» 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 cartoon narrator says "Look, a murder of crows!" and everyone in the park nods.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 narrator	det
2	cartoon	cartoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 narrator	compound
3	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 Look	punct
6	Look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 says	ccomp
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 murder	punct
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 murder	det
9	murder	murder	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 Look	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 crows	case
11	crows	crow	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 murder	nmod
12	!	!	PUNCT	_	6 Look	punct
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 Look	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 nods	cc
15	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	19 nods	nsubj
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 park	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 park	det
18	park	park	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 everyone	nmod
19	nods	nod	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 says	conj
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	say speech: express	present	a cartoon narrator		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	look in a quote	infinitive		a murder of crows	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus
3	nod	present	everyone		vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	murder in a quote			crows	nom murder «act 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.

Sentence 2: Is that how people really talk?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 talk	cop
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 talk	mark
3	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	6 talk	advmod
4	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 talk	nsubj
5	really	really	ADV	_	6 talk	advmod
6	talk	talk	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 talk	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	people					talk property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

No, it's an old fun name; most people just say "a lot of crows"

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	8 name	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 name	nsubj
4	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 name	cop
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 name	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 name	amod
7	fun	fun	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 name	compound
8	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	;	;	PUNCT	_	13 say	punct
10	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	11 people	amod
11	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 say	nsubj
12	just	just	ADV	_	13 say	advmod
13	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 name	acl:relcl
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 lot	punct
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 lot	det
16	lot	lot	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 say	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 crows	case
18	crows	crow	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 lot	nmod
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 lot	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	it	a old fun name					tree rules
2	say speech: assert	present	most people	a lot of crows					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent lot=Topic

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Yes, everyone uses it every day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 uses	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	4 uses	nsubj
4	uses	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 uses	obj
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 day	det
7	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 uses	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present	everyone	it			day		vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 3

No, the right name is "a flock of murders", as every bird book says

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	9 flock	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 name	det
4	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 name	amod
5	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 flock	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 flock	cop
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 flock	punct
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 flock	det
9	flock	flock	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 murders	case
11	murders	murder	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 flock	nmod
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 flock	punct
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 says	punct
14	as	as	SCONJ	_	18 says	mark
15	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	17 book	det
16	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 book	compound
17	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 says	nsubj
18	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 flock	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a in a quote	present	the right name	a flock				of murders	tree rules
2	say speech: assert	present	every bird book						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Yes, it is the only correct word

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	8 word	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 word	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 word	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 word	det
6	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 word	amod
7	correct	correct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 word	amod
8	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	it	the only correct word					tree rules

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/t6/