Exam question 4 · Verbs: doing words and being words

Given a subject comprising two persons, select the response consistent with the rules of agreement in standard English.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, subject, agreement · What happens: give, comprise, select, rule · To what, where: subject, two persons, response

This is exam question 4 of lesson 3 «Verbs: doing words and being words» of the language course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 select	advcl
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 subject	det
3	subject	subject	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Given	obj
4	comprising	comprise	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 subject	acl
5	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 persons	nummod
6	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 comprising	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Given	punct
8	select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 response	det
10	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 select	obj
11	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 select	xcomp
12	with	with	ADP	_	14 rules	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 rules	det
14	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 consistent	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 agreement	case
16	agreement	agreement	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 rules	nmod
17	in	in	ADP	_	19 English	case
18	standard	standard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 English	amod
19	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 agreement	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	participle	you not said here	a subject		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
2	comprise	gerund	a subject not said here	two persons		vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme person=Pivot
3	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
4	rule		agreement in standard English			nom rule «cognition intransitive»: of=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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Ali and me goes to the park

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ali	Ali	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 goes	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 me	cc
3	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Ali	conj
4	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 park	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 park	det
7	park	park	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 goes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	Ali			the park			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to park=Initial_Location

Option 2

Ali and I goes to the park

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ali	Ali	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 goes	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 I	cc
3	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Ali	conj
4	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 park	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 park	det
7	park	park	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 goes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	Ali			the park			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to park=Initial_Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Ali and I go to the park

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ali	Ali	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 go	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 I	cc
3	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Ali	conj
4	go	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 park	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 park	det
7	park	park	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 go	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	Ali			the park			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to park=Initial_Location

Option 4

Me and Ali goes to the park

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	4 goes	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 Ali	cc
3	Ali	Ali	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Me	conj
4	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 park	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 park	det
7	park	park	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 goes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	Me			the park			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to park=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/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/e4/