Exam question 1 · Prepositions and conjunctions: little words that hold sent…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a preposition?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: preposition

This is exam question 1 of lesson 6 «Prepositions and conjunctions: little words that hold sentences together» of the language course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 preposition	det
10	preposition	preposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		a preposition				of the following statements; accurately property	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

A word qualifying a noun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	qualifying	qualify	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 word	acl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 noun	det
5	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 qualifying	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	qualify	gerund	a word not said here	a noun					tree rules

Option 2

A word denoting an action or state, preceding a noun or pronoun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	denoting	denote	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 word	acl
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 action	det
5	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 denoting	obj
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 state	cc
7	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 action	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 preceding	punct
9	preceding	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 denoting	conj
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 noun	det
11	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 preceding	obj
12	or	or	CCONJ	_	13 pronoun	cc
13	pronoun	pronoun	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 noun	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	gerund	a word not said here	a action or state					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot action=Topic
2	precede	gerund	a word not said here	a noun or pronoun					vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme noun=Co-Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A word indicating relations of place, time or connection, preceding a noun or pronoun

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	indicating	indicate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 word	acl
4	relations	relation	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 indicating	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 place	case
6	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 relations	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 time	punct
8	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 place	conj
9	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 connection	cc
10	connection	connection	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 place	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 preceding	punct
12	preceding	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 indicating	conj
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 noun	det
14	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 preceding	obj
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	16 pronoun	cc
16	pronoun	pronoun	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 noun	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	gerund	a word not said here	relations of place and time or connection					vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot relation=Topic
2	precede	gerund	a word not said here	a noun or pronoun					vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme noun=Co-Theme

Option 4

A word replacing a noun to avoid repetition

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	replacing	replace	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 word	acl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 noun	det
5	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 replacing	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 avoid	mark
7	avoid	avoid	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 replacing	advcl
8	repetition	repetition	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 avoid	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	replace	gerund	a word not said here	a noun					vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme noun=Co-Theme
2	avoid	to-infinitive	a word not said here	repetition					vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent repetition=Location

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/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/e1/