Test 1 · ★★★ · Grammar puzzles, part two

Your mate goes "the mouse was chased by the cat means the mouse did the chasing, innit." What's right?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, cat, mouse · What happens: go, chase, mean, do, be · To what, where: mouse, chasing · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★★★ of lesson 36 «Grammar puzzles, part two» 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 "the mouse was chased by the cat means the mouse did the chasing, innit."

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	_	12 means	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 mouse	det
6	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 means	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 chased	aux:pass
8	chased	chase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 mouse	acl
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 cat	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 cat	det
11	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 chased	obl
12	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 goes	parataxis
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 mouse	det
14	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 did	nsubj
15	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 means	ccomp
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 chasing	det
17	chasing	chasing	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 did	obj
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 innit	punct
19	innit	innit	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 chasing	conj
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 goes	punct
21	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 goes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	go	present	Your mate		vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	chase in a quote	past · passive	the cat	the mouse not said here	vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent
3	mean in a quote	present	the mouse		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	do in a quote	past	the mouse	the chasing and innit	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chasing=Eventuality

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 right?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 right	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
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						right property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

No, the cat still did the chasing; "by the cat" shows the doer

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	6 did	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cat	det
4	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 did	nsubj
5	still	still	ADV	_	6 did	advmod
6	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 shows	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 chasing	det
8	chasing	chasing	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 did	obj
9	;	;	PUNCT	_	15 shows	punct
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 cat	punct
11	by	by	ADP	_	13 cat	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 cat	det
13	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 shows	nsubj
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 cat	punct
15	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 doer	det
17	doer	doer	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 shows	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	the cat	the doer					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent doer=Recipient

Option 2

Yes, passive sentences swap who does what

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	5 swap	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 swap	punct
3	passive	passive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 sentences	amod
4	sentences	sentence	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 swap	nsubj
5	swap	swap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 does	nsubj
7	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 swap	ccomp
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 does	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swap	present	passive sentences						tree rules
2	do	present							vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality

Option 3

No, nobody did any chasing in that sentence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 did	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 chasing	det
6	chasing	chasing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 sentence	case
8	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	9 sentence	det
9	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	nobody	any chasing		that sentence			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chasing=Eventuality

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Yes, whoever comes first always does the action

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 comes	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 comes	punct
3	whoever	whoever	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 comes	nsubj
4	comes	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 does	advcl
5	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 comes	advmod
6	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 does	advmod
7	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 action	det
9	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 does	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	present	whoever					first property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	do	present		the action				always property	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent action=Eventuality

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/36-grammar-puzzles-part-two/t1/