Test 1 · ★ · Prepositions and conjunctions: little words that hold sent…

Your mate goes "prepositions are well pointless, tiny words innit." What sentence shows they matter?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, prepositions, sentence · What happens: go, be, show · To what, where: prepositions · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 6 «Prepositions and conjunctions: little words that hold sentences together» 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 mate goes "prepositions are well pointless, tiny words innit."

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 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 goes	nsubj
3	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 pointless	punct
5	prepositions	preposition	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 pointless	nsubj
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 pointless	cop
7	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 pointless	advmod
8	pointless	pointless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 goes	parataxis
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 innit	punct
10	tiny	tiny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 words	amod
11	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 innit	compound
12	innit	innit	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pointless	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 pointless	punct
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 goes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	Your mate						vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is in a quote	present	prepositions					words innit obl; pointless, well 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.

Sentence 2: What sentence shows they matter?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	DET	PronType=Int	2 sentence	det
2	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shows	nsubj
3	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 shows	iobj
5	matter	mat	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 shows	xcomp
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 shows	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	what sentence		prepositions = preposition			mat property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

"The cat sat" needs no small words, so they can always go

The tree, 12 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 sat	punct
2	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 cat	det
3	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sat	nsubj
4	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 needs	ccomp
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 sat	punct
6	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 words	det
8	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 words	amod
9	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 needs	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 go	punct
11	so	so	ADV	_	15 go	advmod
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 go	nsubj
13	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 go	aux
14	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	15 go	advmod
15	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 needs	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	sit in a quote	past	the cat			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	need	present		no small words		tree rules
3	go	can	words = word		always property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Prepositions only matter in French

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Prepositions	preposition	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 matter	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 matter	advmod
3	matter	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 French	case
5	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 matter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	matter	present	Prepositions			French			vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 3

Small words never change meaning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 words	amod
2	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 change	nsubj
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 change	advmod
4	change	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 change	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present	Small words	meaning					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

"The cat is in the box" and "The cat is on the box" mean different things

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 box	punct
2	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 cat	det
3	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 box	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 box	cop
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 box	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 box	det
7	box	box	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 mean	nsubj
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 box	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 box	cc
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 box	punct
11	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 cat	det
12	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 box	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 box	cop
14	on	on	ADP	_	16 box	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 box	det
16	box	box	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 box	conj
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 box	punct
18	mean	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
19	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 things	amod
20	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 mean	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	the cat		the box and the box	tree rules
2	is in a quote	present	the cat		the box	tree rules
3	mean	present	the box and the box	different things		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=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/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/t1/