Exam question 1 · Tenses: past, present and future

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the grammatical category of tense?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: grammatical category

This is exam question 1 of lesson 8 «Tenses: past, present and future» 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 category	det
10	grammatical	grammatical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 category	amod
11	category	category	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 tense	case
13	tense	tense	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 category	nmod
14	?	?	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		the grammatical category of tense				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

The punctuation concluding a sentence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 punctuation	det
2	punctuation	punctuation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	concluding	conclude	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 punctuation	acl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 sentence	det
5	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 concluding	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conclude	gerund	the punctuation not said here	a sentence					vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sentence=Theme

Option 2

The order in which adjectives are arranged

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 order	det
2	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 arranged	nsubj:pass
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 adjectives	case
4	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	5 adjectives	det
5	adjectives	adjective	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 order	nmod
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 arranged	aux:pass
7	arranged	arrange	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arrange	present · passive		the order in which adjectives					vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The form of a noun indicating number

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 form	det
2	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 noun	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 noun	det
5	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 form	nmod
6	indicating	indicate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 noun	acl
7	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 indicating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	gerund	a noun not said here	number					vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot number=Topic
2	form			a noun					nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The form of a verb indicating the time of an action or state

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 form	det
2	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 verb	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 verb	det
5	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 form	nmod
6	indicating	indicate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 verb	acl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 time	det
8	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 indicating	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 action	case
10	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 action	det
11	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 time	nmod
12	or	or	CCONJ	_	13 state	cc
13	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 action	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	gerund	a verb not said here				time		vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot
2	form			a verb					nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient

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/8-tenses-past-present-future/e1/