Test 7 · Told you a hundred times: how other languages exaggerate a…

«Marco's nonna loves him a sackful?? that's so weird» What is the best answer?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nonna, that, best answer · What happens: love, be · To what, where: Marco

This is test 7 of lesson 53 «Told you a hundred times: how other languages exaggerate and play down» 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 loves	punct
2	Marco	Marco	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 nonna	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 Marco	case
4	nonna	nonna	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 loves	nsubj
5	loves	love	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 loves	obj
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 sackful	det
8	sackful	sackful	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 loves	obj
9	??	??	PUNCT	_	13 weird	punct
10	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	13 weird	nsubj
11	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 weird	cop
12	so	so	ADV	_	13 weird	advmod
13	weird	weird	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 loves	parataxis
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 weird	punct
15	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	13 weird	advcl
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 What	cop
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 answer	det
18	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	19 answer	amod
19	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 What	nsubj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 loves	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	love in a quote	present	Marco's nonna	Marco		tree rules
2	is in a quote	present	that		weird property	tree rules
3	is a	present	the best answer			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

It's a rude word in Italian

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 word	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 word	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 word	det
4	rude	rude	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 word	amod
5	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 Italian	case
7	Italian	Italian	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 word	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a rude word		Italian			tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It means she loves him only a little

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	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 loves	nsubj
4	loves	love	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 means	ccomp
5	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 loves	obj
6	only	only	ADV	_	8 little	advmod
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 little	det
8	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 loves	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	love	present	she	him = he					tree rules

Option 3

It means she keeps him in a sack

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	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 keeps	nsubj
4	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 means	ccomp
5	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 keeps	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 sack	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 sack	det
8	sack	sack	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 keeps	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	keep	present	she	him = he		a sack			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme in sack=Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It's Italian for «loads», like English «a ton»

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	3 Italian	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 Italian	cop
3	Italian	Italian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 loads	case
5	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 loads	punct
6	loads	load	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 Italian	obl
7	»	»	PUNCT	_	3 Italian	punct
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 English	punct
9	like	like	ADP	_	10 English	case
10	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 Italian	parataxis
11	«	«	PUNCT	_	13 ton	punct
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 ton	det
13	ton	ton	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 English	appos
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 ton	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					for loads; italian property	tree rules

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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