Exam question 2 · How babies learn to talk

Identify the principal finding of the "wug test" devised by Jean Berko Gleason in 1958.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, devise, find · To what, where: principal finding, wug test, 1958

This is exam question 2 of lesson 31 «How babies learn to talk» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 finding	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 finding	amod
4	finding	finding	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	9 test	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 test	det
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 test	punct
8	wug	wug	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 test	compound
9	test	test	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 finding	nmod
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 test	punct
11	devised	devise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 test	acl
12	by	by	ADP	_	14 Berko	case
13	Jean	Jean	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 Berko	compound
14	Berko	Berko	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 devised	obl:agent
15	Gleason	Gleason	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 Berko	flat
16	in	in	ADP	_	17 1958	case
17	1958	1958	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	11 devised	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal finding of the wug test		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent finding=Theme
2	devise	participle		the wug test not said here	1958	vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	find			the wug test		nom finding «act transitive»: of=patient

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 · ✓ the right answer

Children apply grammatical rules to words they have never previously heard

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 apply	nsubj
2	apply	apply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	grammatical	grammatical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 rules	amod
4	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 apply	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 words	case
6	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 apply	obl
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 heard	nsubj
8	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 heard	aux
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	11 heard	advmod
10	previously	previously	ADV	_	11 heard	advmod
11	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 words	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	apply	present	Children	grammatical rules				to words	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rule=Theme
2	not hear	present · perfect	Children = child	words not said here				previously property	vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus

Option 2

Children prefer drawings to words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prefer	nsubj
2	prefer	prefer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	drawings	drawing	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prefer	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 words	case
5	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prefer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prefer	present	Children	drawings				to words	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer drawing=Stimulus

Option 3

Children cannot form plurals before the age of ten

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 form	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 form	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 form	advmod
4	form	form	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	plurals	plural	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 form	obj
6	before	before	ADP	_	8 age	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 age	det
8	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 form	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 ten	case
10	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 age	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not form	can	Children	plurals			before the age of ten		vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location plural=Theme

Option 4

Children reproduce only those words which they have previously heard from adults

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 reproduce	nsubj
2	reproduce	reproduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 words	advmod
4	those	that	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	5 words	det
5	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 reproduce	obl
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 heard	nsubj:pass
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 heard	nsubj:pass
8	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 heard	aux
9	previously	previously	ADV	_	10 heard	advmod
10	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 words	acl:relcl
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 adults	case
12	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 heard	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reproduce	present	Children	that words					vn birth-28.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	hear	present · perfect · passive		that words				from adults; previously property	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Topic from adult=Source

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/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/e2/