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Test 6 · ★★★ · Alice's word games: puns, parodies and nonsense

The Hatter's riddle has no answer. Why might Carroll have written a riddle like that?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: riddle, Hatter · What happens: have, riddle, write · To what, where: answer, Carroll

This is test 6 · ★★★ 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: The Hatter's riddle has no answer.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Hatter	det
2	Hatter	Hatter	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 riddle	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 Hatter	case
4	riddle	riddle	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 has	nsubj
5	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 answer	det
7	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 has	obj
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 has	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	the Hatter's riddle	no answer					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent answer=Patient
2	riddle		the Hatter						nom riddle «communication intransitive»: poss=agent

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: Why might Carroll have written a riddle like that?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 written	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 written	aux
3	Carroll	Carroll	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 written	nsubj:pass
4	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 written	aux
5	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 riddle	det
7	riddle	riddle	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 written	obj
8	like	like	ADP	_	9 that	case
9	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 written	obl
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 written	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	might · perfect · passive		Carroll				like that	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient riddle=Topic

The options

Option 1

Because the answer was a secret only Alice Liddell knew

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	6 secret	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 answer	det
3	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 secret	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 secret	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 secret	det
6	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 knew	nsubj
7	only	only	ADV	_	8 Alice	advmod
8	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 secret	appos
9	Liddell	Liddell	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Alice	flat
10	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the answer	a secret					tree rules
2	know	past	a secret						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Because he forgot the answer while he was writing the book and never found his notes again

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	3 forgot	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 forgot	nsubj
3	forgot	forget	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 answer	det
5	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forgot	obj
6	while	while	SCONJ	_	9 writing	mark
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 writing	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 writing	aux
9	writing	write	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 forgot	advcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 book	det
11	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 writing	obj
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 found	cc
13	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	14 found	advmod
14	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 forgot	conj
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 notes	nmod:poss
16	notes	note	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 found	obj
17	again	again	ADV	_	14 found	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forget	past	he	the answer					tree rules
2	write	past · progressive	he	the book					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent book=Theme
3	not find	past	he not said here	his notes			again		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent note=Topic
4	note		his = he						nom note «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

Because riddles were against the law in Victorian England

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	6 law	mark
2	riddles	riddle	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 law	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 law	cop
4	against	against	ADP	_	6 law	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 law	det
6	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 England	case
8	Victorian	Victorian	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 England	compound
9	England	England	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 law	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	riddles			Victorian England		against the law	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To show that Wonderland talk often sounds clever but means nothing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 show	mark
2	show	show	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 sounds	mark
4	Wonderland	Wonderland	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 talk	compound
5	talk	talk	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sounds	nsubj
6	often	often	ADV	_	7 sounds	advmod
7	sounds	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 show	ccomp
8	clever	clever	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sounds	xcomp
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	10 means	cc
10	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 sounds	conj
11	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	10 means	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	to-infinitive							vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	sound	present	Wonderland talk					clever, often property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
3	mean	present	Wonderland talk not said here	nothing					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic

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/t6/