---
title: Why are guinea pigs called guinea pigs? — The petting farm: goats, sheep, pigs,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Why are guinea pigs called guinea pigs? Test 11 of lesson 96 «The petting farm: goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and washing hands» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 11 · The petting farm: goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and washing…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why are guinea pigs called guinea pigs?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** guinea pigs · **What happens:** be, call · **To what, where:** guinea pigs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 of lesson 96 «The petting farm: goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and washing hands» of the biology 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands:t11:1
# text = Why are guinea pigs called guinea pigs?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	guinea	guinea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	guinea	guinea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | guinea pigs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | participle | guinea pigs *not said here* | guinea pigs |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They come from Guinea in Africa and are a kind of small pig

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands:t11:o1:1
# text = They come from Guinea in Africa and are a kind of small pig
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Guinea	Guinea	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Africa	Africa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	pig	pig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | present | They |  |  | Guinea |  | in Africa | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from guinea=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **is a** | present | They *not said here* | a kind |  |  |  | of small pig | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nobody is sure, as they are neither pigs nor from Guinea

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands:t11:o2:1
# text = Nobody is sure, as they are neither pigs nor from Guinea
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	9	cc:preconj	_	_
9	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	ccomp	_	_
10	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Guinea	Guinea	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Nobody |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | they |  |  |  |  | as pigs nor Guinea | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They oink like pigs in Guinea

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands:t11:o3:1
# text = They oink like pigs in Guinea
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	oink	oink	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	like	like	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Guinea	Guinea	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **oink** | present | They |  |  | Guinea |  | like pigs | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were sold for one guinea coin as pigs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands:t11:o4:1
# text = They were sold for one guinea coin as pigs
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	sold	sell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
6	guinea	guinea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	coin	coin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:agent	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sell** | past · passive | pigs | They |  |  |  | for one guinea coin | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent subject=Theme for coin=Asset |

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**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.

<!-- /div -->

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- next →: [The petting farm: goats, sheep, pigs,…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands/e1/)
- ↑ back to [The petting farm: goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and washing hands](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands/)