Test 11 · ★ · How babies learn to talk
Your baby cousin calls every round thing "ball", even the Moon. What should you do?
Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: baby cousin, you · What happens: call, do · To what, where: round thing · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 31 «How babies learn to talk» 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 baby cousin calls every round thing "ball", even the Moon.
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 | 3 cousin | nmod:poss |
| 2 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 cousin | compound |
| 3 | cousin | cousin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 calls | nsubj |
| 4 | calls | call | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 7 thing | det |
| 6 | round | round | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 thing | amod |
| 7 | thing | thing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 calls | obj |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 ball | punct |
| 9 | ball | ball | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 thing | appos |
| 10 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 ball | punct |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 Moon | punct |
| 12 | even | even | ADV | _ | 14 Moon | advmod |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 Moon | det |
| 14 | Moon | Moon | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 calls | obl |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 calls | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | call | present | Your baby cousin | every round thing | the Moon obl | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thing=Recipient |
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 should you do?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 do | obj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 do | aux |
| 3 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 4 do | nsubj |
| 4 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 do | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | do | should | you | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
The options
Option 1
Agree the Moon is a ball to play with
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agree | agree | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 Moon | det |
| 3 | Moon | Moon | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 ball | nsubj |
| 4 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 ball | cop |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 ball | det |
| 6 | ball | ball | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Agree | ccomp |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 play | mark |
| 8 | play | play | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 ball | acl |
| 9 | with | with | ADP | _ | 8 play | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | agree speech: agree | imperative | you not said here | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is a | present | the Moon | a ball | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | play | to-infinitive | you not said here | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 2
Never mention the Moon to her ever again
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 2 mention | advmod |
| 2 | mention | mention | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 Moon | det |
| 4 | Moon | Moon | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 mention | obj |
| 5 | to | to | ADP | _ | 6 her | case |
| 6 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 mention | obl |
| 7 | ever | ever | ADV | PronType=Ind | 8 again | advmod |
| 8 | again | again | ADV | _ | 2 mention | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not mention speech: other | imperative | you not said here | the Moon | her = she | again | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent moon=Topic to she=Recipient |
Option 3
Tell her off for being so silly about it
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tell | tell | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 1 Tell | iobj |
| 3 | off | off | ADP | _ | 1 Tell | compound:prt |
| 4 | for | for | ADP | _ | 7 silly | case |
| 5 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 silly | cop |
| 6 | so | so | ADV | _ | 7 silly | advmod |
| 7 | silly | silly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 1 Tell | obl |
| 8 | about | about | ADP | _ | 9 it | case |
| 9 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 silly | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell off speech: assert | imperative | you not said here | her = she | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | is | gerund | about it; silly property | tree rules |
Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
Name it for her: "That's the Moon!"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Name | name | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 1 Name | obj |
| 3 | for | for | ADP | _ | 4 her | case |
| 4 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 1 Name | obl |
| 5 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 10 Moon | punct |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 Moon | punct |
| 7 | That | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 10 Moon | nsubj |
| 8 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 Moon | cop |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 Moon | det |
| 10 | Moon | Moon | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Name | obj |
| 11 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 10 Moon | punct |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 Moon | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | name | imperative | you not said here | it | for her = she | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | |||
| 2 | is a in a quote | present | That | the Moon | 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/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/t11/