Test 8 · Nouns: the names of things, people, places and ideas
Rory says "maths ends in s, so it's 'maths are hard'." What's the right reply?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Rory, maths, it, right reply · What happens: say, end, be · To what, where: s · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 8 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: Rory says "maths ends in s, so it's 'maths are hard'."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rory | Rory | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 says | nsubj |
| 2 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 maths | punct |
| 4 | maths | math | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 ends | nsubj |
| 5 | ends | end | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 says | ccomp |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 s | case |
| 7 | s | s | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 ends | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 hard | punct |
| 9 | so | so | ADV | _ | 15 hard | advmod |
| 10 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 hard | nsubj |
| 11 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 hard | cop |
| 12 | ' | ' | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 maths | amod |
| 13 | maths | math | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 hard | nsubj |
| 14 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 hard | cop |
| 15 | hard | hard | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 says | ccomp |
| 16 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 15 hard | punct |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 15 hard | punct |
| 18 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 15 hard | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | Rory | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | end in a quote | present | maths | s | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | is in a quote | present | it | hard 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.
Sentence 2: What's the right reply?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 What | cop |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 reply | det |
| 4 | right | right | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 reply | amod |
| 5 | reply | reply | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 What | nsubj |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 1 What | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | the right reply | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ✓ the right answer
Maths takes a singular verb: "maths is hard"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maths | math | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 takes | nsubj |
| 2 | takes | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 verb | det |
| 4 | singular | singular | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 verb | amod |
| 5 | verb | verb | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 takes | obj |
| 6 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 10 hard | punct |
| 7 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 hard | punct |
| 8 | maths | math | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 hard | nsubj |
| 9 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 hard | cop |
| 10 | hard | hard | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 takes | parataxis |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 hard | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take | present | Maths | a singular verb | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent verb=Theme clause=Attribute | ||||
| 2 | is in a quote | present | maths | hard property | tree rules |
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice
He's right, every word ending in s is plural
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 right | nsubj |
| 2 | 's | 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 | _ | 6 word | punct |
| 5 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 6 word | det |
| 6 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 plural | nsubj |
| 7 | ending | end | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 6 word | acl |
| 8 | in | in | ADP | _ | 9 s | case |
| 9 | s | s | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 ending | obl |
| 10 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 plural | cop |
| 11 | plural | plural | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 right | parataxis |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | He | right property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | end | gerund | every word not said here | s | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | is | present | every word | plural property | tree rules |
Option 3
Maths has no verb at all
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maths | math | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 has | nsubj |
| 2 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 4 verb | det |
| 4 | verb | verb | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 has | obj |
| 5 | at | at | ADP | _ | 6 all | case |
| 6 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 4 verb | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | present | Maths | no verb | all | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent verb=Patient |
Option 4
It should be "math are hard"
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 | 7 hard | nsubj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 hard | aux |
| 3 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 7 hard | cop |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 hard | punct |
| 5 | math | math | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 hard | nsubj |
| 6 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 hard | cop |
| 7 | hard | hard | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 hard | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is in a quote | should | It | hard property | 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/t8/