Test 10 · ★★ · Idioms taken literally
Your dad says "Let the cat out of the bag" came from real market tricks, 100 percent. What's fair?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: dad · What happens: say, let, come, be · To what, where: cat, bag, real market tricks · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 10 · ★★ of lesson 25 «Idioms taken literally» 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: Your dad says "Let the cat out of the bag" came from real market tricks, 100 percent.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 dad | nmod:poss |
| 2 | dad | dad | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 says | nsubj |
| 3 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 Let | punct |
| 5 | Let | let | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 came | ccomp |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 cat | det |
| 7 | cat | cat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 Let | obj |
| 8 | out | out | ADP | _ | 11 bag | case |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 11 bag | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 bag | det |
| 11 | bag | bag | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 Let | obl |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 Let | punct |
| 13 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 says | ccomp |
| 14 | from | from | ADP | _ | 17 tricks | case |
| 15 | real | real | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 tricks | amod |
| 16 | market | market | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 tricks | compound |
| 17 | tricks | trick | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 came | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 percent | punct |
| 19 | 100 | 100 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 20 percent | nummod |
| 20 | percent | percent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 tricks | appos |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 says | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | Your dad | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | let in a quote | infinitive | the cat | the bag | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Theme | ||||
| 3 | come | past | real market tricks | 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 fair?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 fair | nsubj |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 fair | cop |
| 3 | fair | fair | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 fair | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | fair property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
It came from a film
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 | 2 came | nsubj |
| 2 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | from | from | ADP | _ | 5 film | case |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 film | det |
| 5 | film | film | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 came | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | It | a film | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from film=Initial_Location |
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
It's a popular story, but there's no clear proof
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 | 5 story | nsubj |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 story | cop |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 story | det |
| 4 | popular | popular | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 story | amod |
| 5 | story | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 's | punct |
| 7 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 9 's | cc |
| 8 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 9 's | expl |
| 9 | 's | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 story | parataxis |
| 10 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 12 proof | det |
| 11 | clear | clear | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 proof | amod |
| 12 | proof | proof | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 's | nsubj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | It | a popular story | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | be | present | no clear proof | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
Option 3
Yes, it's fully proven by old market records from London
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 6 proven | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 proven | nsubj:pass |
| 4 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 proven | aux |
| 5 | fully | fully | ADV | _ | 6 proven | advmod |
| 6 | proven | prove | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 7 | by | by | ADP | _ | 10 records | case |
| 8 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 records | amod |
| 9 | market | market | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 records | compound |
| 10 | records | record | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 proven | obl |
| 11 | from | from | ADP | _ | 12 London | case |
| 12 | London | London | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 records | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | prove | present · passive | old market records from London | it | fully property | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
Option 4
It came from Latin
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 | 2 came | nsubj |
| 2 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | from | from | ADP | _ | 4 Latin | case |
| 4 | Latin | Latin | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 came | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | It | Latin | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from latin=Initial_Location |
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/25-idioms-taken-literally/t10/