Test 4 · Homophones: words that sound the same

What would happen if a shop sign said "Stationary for sale"?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: shop sign · What happens: happen, say · To what, where: Stationary · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 4 of lesson 27 «Homophones: words that sound the same» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 said	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 sign	det
6	shop	shop	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sign	compound
7	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 said	nsubj
8	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 Stationary	punct
10	Stationary	stationary	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 said	obj
11	for	for	ADP	_	12 sale	case
12	sale	sale	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 Stationary	nmod
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 Stationary	punct
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	say speech: assert a condition, not said to happen	past	a shop sign	Stationary				for sale	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent stationary=Topic

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 · ✓ the right answer

It would say "standing still for sale", a funny mistake

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	3 say	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 say	aux
3	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 standing	punct
5	standing	stand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 say	advcl
6	still	still	ADV	_	5 standing	advmod
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 sale	case
8	sale	sale	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 standing	obl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 sale	punct
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 mistake	punct
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 mistake	det
12	funny	funny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 mistake	amod
13	mistake	mistake	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sale	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	It						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	stand in a quote	gerund					still	for sale and a funny mistake	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer for sale=Attribute

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It would mean the shop is closed

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	3 mean	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 mean	aux
3	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 shop	det
5	shop	shop	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 closed	nsubj:pass
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 closed	aux:pass
7	closed	close	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 mean	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	would	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	close	present · passive		the shop					vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3

It would mean pens are free

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	3 mean	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 mean	aux
3	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	pens	pen	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 free	nsubj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 free	cop
6	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 mean	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	would	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	pens					free property	tree rules

Option 4

Nothing, both spellings are fine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	4 spellings	det
4	spellings	spelling	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 fine	nsubj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 fine	cop
6	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Nothing	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	both spellings					fine 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/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/t4/