Test 8 · ★ · How babies learn to talk
Leo's dad is sure "ba-ba-ba" means "bottle". What's more likely?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: dad, ba ba ba · What happens: be, mean · To what, where: bottle
This is test 8 · ★ 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: Leo's dad is sure "ba-ba-ba" means "bottle".
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leo | Leo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 dad | nmod:poss |
| 2 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 1 Leo | case |
| 3 | dad | dad | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sure | nsubj |
| 4 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 sure | cop |
| 5 | sure | sure | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 ba | punct |
| 7 | ba | ba | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 ba | compound |
| 8 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 7 ba | punct |
| 9 | ba | ba | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 ba | compound |
| 10 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 11 ba | punct |
| 11 | ba | ba | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 means | nsubj |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 ba | punct |
| 13 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 sure | ccomp |
| 14 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 15 bottle | punct |
| 15 | bottle | bottle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 means | obj |
| 16 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 15 bottle | punct |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 sure | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | Leo's dad | sure property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | mean | present | ba ba ba | bottle | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bottle=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.
Sentence 2: What's more likely?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 likely | nsubj |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 likely | cop |
| 3 | more | more | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 4 likely | advmod |
| 4 | likely | likely | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 likely | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | likely property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1
Leo is saying "baby"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leo | Leo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 saying | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 saying | aux |
| 3 | saying | say | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 baby | punct |
| 5 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 saying | obj |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 baby | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present · progressive | Leo | baby | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent baby=Topic |
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
Leo is babbling to practise sounds
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leo | Leo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 babbling | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 babbling | aux |
| 3 | babbling | babble | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 practise | mark |
| 5 | practise | practise | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 babbling | xcomp |
| 6 | sounds | sound | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 practise | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | babble | present · progressive | Leo | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | practise | to-infinitive | Leo not said here | sounds | tree rules |
Option 3
Leo really asked for his bottle
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leo | Leo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 asked | nsubj |
| 2 | really | really | ADV | _ | 3 asked | advmod |
| 3 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | for | for | ADP | _ | 6 bottle | case |
| 5 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 bottle | nmod:poss |
| 6 | bottle | bottle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 asked | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | Leo | for Leo's bottle | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 4
Leo is singing a song
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leo | Leo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 singing | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 singing | aux |
| 3 | singing | sing | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 song | det |
| 5 | song | song | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 singing | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sing speech: express | present · progressive | Leo | a song | vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=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/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/t8/