Test 2 · ★★★ · Alice's word games: puns, parodies and nonsense

Your teacher writes «Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, Derision» on the board and asks what they are. What do you say?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: teacher, Ambition, you · What happens: write, ask, be, say · To what, where: Ambition, board · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 · ★★★ 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

Sentence 1: Your teacher writes «Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, Derision» on the board and asks what they are.

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 teacher	nmod:poss
2	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 writes	nsubj
3	writes	write	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	«	«	PUNCT	_	5 Ambition	punct
5	Ambition	ambition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 writes	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 Distraction	punct
7	Distraction	distraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 Ambition	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 Uglification	punct
9	Uglification	uglification	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 Ambition	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 Derision	punct
11	Derision	derision	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 Ambition	conj
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 Ambition	punct
13	on	on	ADP	_	15 board	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 board	det
15	board	board	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 writes	obl
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 asks	cc
17	asks	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 writes	conj
18	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	17 asks	ccomp
19	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 what	nsubj
20	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 what	cop
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 writes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	write	present	Your teacher	Ambition and Distraction and Uglification and Derision	the board	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent ambition=Theme on board=Destination
2	ask speech: ask	present	Your teacher not said here			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is a	present	Ambition			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.

Sentence 2: What do you say?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 say	obj
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 say	nsubj
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 say	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present · do-support	you						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Four old words for being proud, bored, ugly and rude, written on old classroom walls

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 words	nummod
2	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 words	amod
3	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 proud	case
5	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 proud	cop
6	proud	proud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 words	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 bored	punct
8	bored	bored	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 proud	conj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 ugly	punct
10	ugly	ugly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 proud	conj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 rude	cc
12	rude	rude	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 proud	conj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 written	punct
14	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 words	acl
15	on	on	ADP	_	18 walls	case
16	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 walls	amod
17	classroom	classroom	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 walls	compound
18	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 written	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	gerund			proud property	tree rules
2	be					tree rules
3	be					tree rules
4	be					tree rules
5	write	participle	Four old words not said here	old classroom walls		vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on wall=Destination

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The four sums in sound-alike form: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division

The tree, 11 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sums	det
2	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 sums	nummod
3	sums	sum	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	8 form	case
5	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 form	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 sound	punct
7	alike	alike	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 form	amod
8	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sums	nmod
9	:	:	PUNCT	_	10 addition	punct
10	addition	addition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sums	parataxis
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 subtraction	punct
12	subtraction	subtraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 addition	conj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 multiplication	punct
14	multiplication	multiplication	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 addition	conj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 division	punct
16	division	division	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 addition	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

The names of the four houses at the Mock Turtle's school

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 names	det
2	names	name	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 houses	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 houses	det
5	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 houses	nummod
6	houses	house	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 names	nmod
7	at	at	ADP	_	12 school	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Turtle	det
9	Mock	Mock	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Turtle	compound
10	Turtle	Turtle	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 school	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 Turtle	case
12	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 houses	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	name			the four houses at the Mock Turtle's school					nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Four bad habits that the Mock Turtle wanted children to avoid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 habits	nummod
2	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 habits	amod
3	habits	habit	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 wanted	nsubj
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 wanted	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Turtle	det
6	Mock	Mock	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Turtle	compound
7	Turtle	Turtle	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 wanted	nsubj
8	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 wanted	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 avoid	mark
11	avoid	avoid	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 wanted	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	Four bad habits	children					tree rules
2	avoid not said to happen	to-infinitive	children not said here						vn avoid-52 «NP V S_ING»: 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/t2/