Exam question 4 · Tenses: past, present and future

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the Irish English construction "I'm after eating my dinner".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, I · What happens: select, establish, concern, eat · To what, where: response, Irish English construction, dinner

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 construction	det
11	Irish	Irish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 construction	amod
12	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 construction	compound
13	construction	construction	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	18 eating	punct
15	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	18 eating	nsubj
16	'm	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 eating	aux
17	after	after	SCONJ	_	18 eating	mark
18	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 concerning	conj
19	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 dinner	nmod:poss
20	dinner	dinner	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 eating	obj
21	"	"	PUNCT	_	18 eating	punct
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the Irish English construction		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus construction=Experiencer
4	eat in a quote	present · progressive	I	my dinner		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Patient

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

It signifies that the speaker is in pursuit of the meal

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 signifies	nsubj
2	signifies	signify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 pursuit	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 speaker	det
5	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pursuit	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 pursuit	cop
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 pursuit	case
8	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 signifies	ccomp
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 meal	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 meal	det
11	meal	meal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pursuit	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	signify	present	It						vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
2	is	present	the speaker			pursuit		of the meal	tree rules

Option 2

It signifies that the speaker intends to eat presently

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 signifies	nsubj
2	signifies	signify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 intends	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 speaker	det
5	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 intends	nsubj
6	intends	intend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 signifies	advcl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 eat	mark
8	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 intends	xcomp
9	presently	presently	ADV	_	8 eat	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	signify	present	It		vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
2	intend	present	the speaker		vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	eat not said to happen	to-infinitive	the speaker not said here	presently property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

It is devoid of meaning in all varieties of English

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 devoid	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 devoid	cop
3	devoid	devoid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 meaning	case
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 devoid	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 varieties	case
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	8 varieties	det
8	varieties	variety	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 devoid	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 English	case
10	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 varieties	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It			all varieties of English		of meaning; devoid property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It signifies that the speaker has recently eaten

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 signifies	nsubj
2	signifies	signify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 eaten	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 speaker	det
5	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 eaten	nsubj
6	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 eaten	aux
7	recently	recently	ADV	_	8 eaten	advmod
8	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	2 signifies	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	signify	present	It						vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
2	eat	present · perfect	the speaker					recently property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/e4/