Test 1 · Verbs: doing words and being words
Your mate goes "a sentence with no verb is fine if it's well long." Is he right?
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, sentence · What happens: go, be · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 1 of lesson 3 «Verbs: doing words and being 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: Your mate goes "a sentence with no verb is fine if it's well long."
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 mate | nmod:poss |
| 2 | mate | mate | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 goes | nsubj |
| 3 | goes | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 fine | punct |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 sentence | det |
| 6 | sentence | sentence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 fine | nsubj |
| 7 | with | with | ADP | _ | 9 verb | case |
| 8 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 9 verb | det |
| 9 | verb | verb | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 sentence | nmod |
| 10 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 fine | cop |
| 11 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 goes | ccomp |
| 12 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 16 long | mark |
| 13 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 long | nsubj |
| 14 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 16 long | cop |
| 15 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 16 long | advmod |
| 16 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 fine | advcl |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 fine | punct |
| 18 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 goes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | present | Your mate | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | is in a quote | present | a sentence with no verb | fine property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | is a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | present | sentence | long, well 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: Is he right?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 right | cop |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 right | nsubj |
| 3 | right | right | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 right | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | mate | right property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1
Yes, if it has lots of nouns
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 5 has | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 has | punct |
| 3 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 5 has | mark |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 has | nsubj |
| 5 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | lots | lot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 has | obj |
| 7 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 nouns | case |
| 8 | nouns | noun | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 lots | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | present | it | lots of nouns | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lot=Patient |
Option 2
Yes, length alone makes a sentence complete
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 3 length | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | length | length | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 makes | nsubj |
| 4 | alone | alone | ADV | _ | 3 length | advmod |
| 5 | makes | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 sentence | det |
| 7 | sentence | sentence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 makes | obj |
| 8 | complete | complete | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 makes | xcomp |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | make | present | length | a sentence | complete property | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sentence=Product |
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice
No, it needs at least three verbs
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 4 needs | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 needs | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 needs | nsubj |
| 4 | needs | need | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | at | at | ADP | _ | 6 least | case |
| 6 | least | least | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 7 three | nmod |
| 7 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 8 verbs | nummod |
| 8 | verbs | verb | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 needs | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | need | present | it | three verbs | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot verb=Theme |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
No, a full sentence needs at least one verb
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 6 needs | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 needs | punct |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 sentence | det |
| 4 | full | full | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 sentence | amod |
| 5 | sentence | sentence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 needs | nsubj |
| 6 | needs | need | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | at | at | ADP | _ | 8 least | case |
| 8 | least | least | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 9 one | nmod |
| 9 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 10 verb | nummod |
| 10 | verb | verb | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 needs | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | need | present | a full sentence | one verb | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot verb=Theme |
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/t1/