Test 1 · ★★★ · Alice's word games: puns, parodies and nonsense

«the old crab taught Laughing and Grief lol what even is that» What is the joke?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old crab, that · What happens: teach, laugh, be · To what, where: joke · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★★★ of lesson 41 «Alice's word games: puns, parodies and nonsense» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	5 taught	punct
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 crab	det
3	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 crab	amod
4	crab	crab	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 taught	nsubj
5	taught	teach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	Laughing	laugh	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 taught	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 Grief	cc
8	Grief	Grief	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Laughing	conj
9	lol	lol	INTJ	_	10 what	discourse
10	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 taught	parataxis
11	even	even	ADV	_	12 is	advmod
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 what	cop
13	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	10 what	nsubj
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	10 what	punct
15	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	18 joke	nsubj
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 joke	cop
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 joke	det
18	joke	joke	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 what	acl:relcl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 taught	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	teach speech: other in a quote	past	the old crab		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	laugh in a quote	gerund	the old crab not said here		vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is a in a quote	present	that		tree rules
4	be speech: other	present		the joke	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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

It is a real subject taught in schools under the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 subject	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 subject	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 subject	det
4	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 subject	amod
5	subject	subject	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	taught	teach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 subject	acl
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 schools	case
8	schools	school	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 taught	obl
9	under	under	ADP	_	11 sea	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sea	det
11	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 taught	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a real subject					tree rules
2	teach speech: other	participle		a real subject not said here		schools		under the sea	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It is a mistake by the printer that nobody ever fixed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 mistake	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 mistake	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 mistake	det
4	mistake	mistake	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 printer	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 printer	det
7	printer	printer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mistake	nmod
8	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 fixed	nsubj:pass
9	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	11 fixed	nsubj:pass
10	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	11 fixed	advmod
11	fixed	fix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 printer	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a mistake				by the printer	tree rules
2	fix	participle · passive		the printer			ever		vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: subject=Patient

Option 3

It means he laughed in the mornings and cried in the afternoons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 laughed	nsubj
4	laughed	laugh	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 means	ccomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 mornings	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mornings	det
7	mornings	morning	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 laughed	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 cried	cc
9	cried	cry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 laughed	conj
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 afternoons	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 afternoons	det
12	afternoons	afternoon	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 cried	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	roles by
1	mean	present	It		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	laugh	past	he	morning	vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	cry speech: express	past	he not said here	afternoon	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It sounds like Latin and Greek, two subjects old schools taught

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sounds	nsubj
2	sounds	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	like	like	ADP	_	4 Latin	case
4	Latin	Latin	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 sounds	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 Greek	cc
6	Greek	Greek	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 Latin	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 schools	punct
8	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 subjects	nummod
9	subjects	subject	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 schools	nsubj
10	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 schools	amod
11	schools	school	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sounds	obl
12	taught	teach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 schools	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	sound	present	It		like Latin and Greek	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus
2	school		two subjects			tree rules
3	teach speech: other	participle		old schools not said here		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/41-alice-s-word-games-puns-parodies-and-nonsense/t1/