Test 3 · British and American words

In a cartoon, an American kid says "pavement" and points at the road itself. Could that be right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: American kid, that · What happens: say, point, be · To what, where: pavement, cartoon, road · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 of lesson 21 «British and American words» 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: In a cartoon, an American kid says "pavement" and points at the road itself.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	3 cartoon	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 cartoon	det
3	cartoon	cartoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 says	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 cartoon	punct
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 kid	det
6	American	American	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 kid	amod
7	kid	kid	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 says	nsubj
8	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 pavement	punct
10	pavement	pavement	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 says	obj
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 pavement	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 points	cc
13	points	point	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 says	conj
14	at	at	ADP	_	16 road	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 road	det
16	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 points	obl
17	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes	16 road	nmod:unmarked
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	a American kid	pavement		a cartoon			vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent pavement=Theme in cartoon=Manner
2	point	present	a American kid not said here			the road kid			vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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: Could that be right?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 right	aux
2	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 right	nsubj
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 right	cop
4	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 right	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	could	that					right property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

No, Americans never use the word "pavement" at all, ever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	3 Americans	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	Americans	American	PROPN	Number=Plur	5 use	nsubj
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 use	advmod
5	use	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 word	det
7	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 use	obj
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 pavement	punct
9	pavement	pavement	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 word	appos
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 pavement	punct
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 all	case
12	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 use	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 ever	punct
14	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 use	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not use	present	Americans	the word		all	ever		vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient

Option 2

No, in America the pavement means only the grass verge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 America	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 America	punct
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 America	case
4	America	America	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 means	obl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 pavement	det
6	pavement	pavement	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 means	nsubj
7	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	only	only	ADV	_	11 verge	advmod
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 verge	det
10	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 verge	compound
11	verge	verge	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 means	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	the pavement	the grass verge				in America	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot verge=Theme in america=Attribute

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Yes, in America "pavement" can mean the road surface

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	9 mean	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 America	case
4	America	America	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 mean	obl
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 pavement	punct
6	pavement	pavement	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 mean	nsubj
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 pavement	punct
8	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 mean	aux
9	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 surface	det
11	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 surface	compound
12	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 mean	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	can	pavement	the road surface				in America	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot surface=Theme in america=Attribute

Option 4

Yes, but only in Canada

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	6 Canada	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	but	but	CCONJ	_	6 Canada	cc
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 Canada	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 Canada	case
6	Canada	Canada	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/21-british-and-american-words/t3/