Exam question 2 · When grown-ups are tired or worried

Identify the principal purpose of the request «I need five minutes».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, I, request · What happens: identify, need, purpose · To what, where: principal purpose · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 34 «When grown-ups are tired or worried» of the adult life 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	4 purpose	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purpose	amod
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 request	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 request	det
7	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 purpose	nmod
8	«	«	PUNCT	_	10 need	punct
9	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 need	nsubj
10	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
11	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 minutes	nummod
12	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 need	obj
13	»	»	PUNCT	_	10 need	punct
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal purpose of the request		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent purpose=Theme clause=Attribute
2	need in a quote	present	I		minute	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
3	purpose		the request			nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: of=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

To measure the patience of the person waiting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 measure	mark
2	measure	measure	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 patience	det
4	patience	patience	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 measure	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 person	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 person	det
7	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 patience	nmod
8	waiting	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 person	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	measure	to-infinitive		the patience of the person					vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme patience=Value
2	wait	gerund	the person not said here						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

To defer the matter until the following day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 defer	mark
2	defer	defer	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 matter	det
4	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 defer	obj
5	until	until	ADP	_	8 day	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 day	det
7	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 day	amod
8	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 defer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	defer	to-infinitive		the matter			day		vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent matter=Source
2	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

To indicate that the request has been refused

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 indicate	mark
2	indicate	indicate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 refused	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 request	det
5	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 refused	nsubj:pass
6	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 refused	aux
7	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 refused	aux:pass
8	refused	refuse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 indicate	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	to-infinitive							vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot clause=Topic
2	refuse	present · perfect · passive		the request					vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To regain composure before attending to the matter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 regain	mark
2	regain	regain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	composure	composure	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 regain	obj
4	before	before	SCONJ	_	5 attending	mark
5	attending	attend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 regain	advcl
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 matter	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 matter	det
8	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 attending	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	regain	to-infinitive		composure					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent composure=Theme
2	attend	gerund						to the matter	vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent to matter=Theme

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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