Test 5 · ★★★ · Alice's word games: puns, parodies and nonsense

Why is «You are old, Father William» funnier if you know Southey's poem?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: You · What happens: be, know · To what, where: poem

This is test 5 · ★★★ 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 old	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 old	cop
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 old	punct
4	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 old	nsubj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 old	cop
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 William	punct
8	Father	Father	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 William	compound
9	William	William	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 old	vocative
10	»	»	PUNCT	_	9 William	punct
11	funnier	funny	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 old	conj
12	if	if	SCONJ	_	14 know	mark
13	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	14 know	nsubj
14	know	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 funnier	advcl
15	Southey	Southey	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 poem	nmod:poss
16	's	's	PART	_	15 Southey	case
17	poem	poem	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 know	obj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 old	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	You		Father William vocative; old property	tree rules
2	be		You not said here			tree rules
3	know a condition, not said to happen	present	you	Southey's poem		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer poem=Stimulus

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 not funnier: the two poems are exactly the same

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 funnier	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 funnier	cop
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 funnier	advmod
4	funnier	funny	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	:	:	PUNCT	_	12 same	punct
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 poems	det
7	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 poems	nummod
8	poems	poem	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 same	nsubj
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 same	cop
10	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	12 same	advmod
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 same	det
12	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 funnier	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	present	It					funny property	tree rules
2	is	present	the two poems					exactly, same property	tree rules

Option 2

Southey's poem was written in old French and nobody in England could understand a word of it

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Southey	Southey	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 poem	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Southey	case
3	poem	poem	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 written	nsubj:pass
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 written	aux:pass
5	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 French	case
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 French	amod
8	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 written	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 understand	cc
10	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	14 understand	nsubj
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 England	case
12	England	England	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 nobody	nmod
13	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 understand	aux
14	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 written	conj
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 word	det
16	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 understand	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 it	case
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 word	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	write	past · passive		Southey's poem	old French	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in french=Destination
2	understand	could	nobody	a word of poem		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus
3	word			poem		nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The serious old man becomes a silly one who stands on his head

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 man	det
2	serious	serious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 man	amod
3	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 man	amod
4	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 becomes	nsubj
5	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 one	det
7	silly	silly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 one	amod
8	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 becomes	xcomp
9	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 stands	nsubj
10	stands	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 one	acl:relcl
11	on	on	ADP	_	13 head	case
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 head	nmod:poss
13	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stands	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	the serious old man	a silly one					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	stand	present	a silly one			man's head			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on head=Location

Option 4

Southey's poem is about a mouse who tells a sad tale

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Southey	Southey	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 poem	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Southey	case
3	poem	poem	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 mouse	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 mouse	cop
5	about	about	ADV	_	7 mouse	advmod
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 mouse	det
7	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 tells	nsubj
9	tells	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 mouse	acl:relcl
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 tale	det
11	sad	sad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 tale	amod
12	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 tells	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Southey's poem	a mouse				about property	tree rules
2	tell speech: assert	present	a mouse	a sad tale					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient

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.

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