Exam question 2 · Tenses: past, present and future

Identify the principal means whereby English expresses future time.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, principal, English · What happens: identify, mean, express

This is exam question 2 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 principal	det
3	principal	principal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	acl:relcl
5	whereby	whereby	ADV	PronType=Int	7 expresses	advmod
6	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 expresses	nsubj
7	expresses	express	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 means	advcl
8	future	future	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 time	amod
9	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 expresses	obj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn empathize-88.2 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	mean	present	the principal			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	express	present	English	time	whereby property	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Auxiliary forms such as "will" and "going to", or the present with an adverb of time

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Auxiliary	auxiliary	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 forms	compound
2	forms	form	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 going	nsubj
3	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	6 will	case
4	as	as	ADP	_	3 such	fixed
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 will	punct
6	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 going	aux
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 will	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 going	cc
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 going	punct
10	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
11	to	to	PART	_	10 going	fixed
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 going	punct
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 present	punct
14	or	or	CCONJ	_	16 present	cc
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 present	det
16	present	present	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 going	conj
17	with	with	ADP	_	19 adverb	case
18	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 adverb	det
19	adverb	adverb	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 present	nmod
20	of	of	ADP	_	21 time	case
21	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 adverb	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go in a quote	future	Auxiliary forms						vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

A distinct inflectional ending appended to the verb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 ending	det
2	distinct	distinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 ending	amod
3	inflectional	inflectional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 ending	amod
4	ending	ending	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 appended	nsubj
5	appended	append	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 verb	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 verb	det
8	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 appended	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	append	past	a distinct inflectional ending					to the verb	tree rules

Option 3

English possesses no means of expressing future time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 possesses	nsubj
2	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 possesses	ccomp
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 expressing	mark
6	expressing	express	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 means	advcl
7	future	future	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 time	amod
8	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 expressing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	roles by
1	possess	present	English		tree rules
2	mean	present	no		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	express	gerund	no not said here	time	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The exclusive employment of the word "tomorrow"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 employment	det
2	exclusive	exclusive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 employment	amod
3	employment	employment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 word	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 word	det
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 employment	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 tomorrow	punct
8	tomorrow	tomorrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 word	appos
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 tomorrow	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ			the word					nom employment «state 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/e2/