---
title: Mate, was the cow actually talking or nah? — Grimm's Fairy Tales, Thumbling: the co… · tree and pragmatics
description: Mate, was the cow actually talking or nah? Test 1 · ★ of lesson 119 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Thumbling: the cook overhears, the cow swallows him, and a wolf is cut open» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choi
---

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# Test 1 · ★ · Grimm's Fairy Tales, Thumbling: the cook overhears, the co…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mate, was the cow actually talking or nah?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Mate cow · **What happens:** be, talk · **To what, where:** Mate cow

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 119 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Thumbling: the cook overhears, the cow swallows him, and a wolf is cut open» of the books 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/books/119-pg11027-part22/#t1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:119-pg11027-part22:t1:1
# text = Mate, was the cow actually talking or nah?
1	Mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the Mate cow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **talk** | gerund | the Mate cow |  |  |  |  | actually *property* | vn talk-37.5 «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 -->
Nah, just a cow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:119-pg11027-part22:t1:o1:1
# text = Nah, just a cow
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, she talked

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:119-pg11027-part22:t1:o2:1
# text = Yeah, she talked
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | she |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, it was Thumbling inside her

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:119-pg11027-part22:t1:o3:1
# text = Nah, it was Thumbling inside her
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	Thumbling	thumbl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thumbl** | past · progressive | it |  |  |  |  | inside her *= she* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, the cow was talking proper

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:119-pg11027-part22:t1:o4:1
# text = Yeah, the cow was talking proper
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | the cow |  |  |  |  | proper *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

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- ← previous: [Grimm, Thumbling, part 21: a tiny boy…, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/118-pg11027-part21/e4/)
- next →: [Grimm's Fairy Tales, Thumbling: the co…, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/119-pg11027-part22/t2/)
- ↑ back to [Grimm's Fairy Tales, Thumbling: the cook overhears, the cow swallows him, and a wolf is cut open](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/119-pg11027-part22/)