Exam question 4 · Big feelings in big people

Which of the following statements is consistent with the established facts concerning the shedding of tears by adults?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: established facts, tears · What happens: follow, be, establish, concern, shed · To what, where: shedding

This is exam question 4 of lesson 36 «Big feelings in big people» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 consistent	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 consistent	obl
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 consistent	cop
7	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	with	with	ADP	_	11 facts	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 facts	det
10	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 facts	amod
11	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 consistent	obl
12	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 facts	acl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 shedding	det
14	shedding	shedding	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 concerning	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 tears	case
16	tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 shedding	nmod
17	by	by	ADP	_	18 adults	case
18	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 concerning	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 consistent	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	present			of the following statements; with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the shedding of tears	by adults	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus shedding=Experiencer
5	shed		tears			nom shedding «process 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

Tears in adults invariably indicate a serious family emergency or a death

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 indicate	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 adults	case
3	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Tears	nmod
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 indicate	advmod
5	indicate	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 emergency	det
7	serious	serious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 emergency	amod
8	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 emergency	compound
9	emergency	emergency	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 indicate	obj
10	or	or	CCONJ	_	12 death	cc
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 death	det
12	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 emergency	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	Tears in adults	a serious family emergency or a death				invariably property	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot emergency=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Tears may arise from joy or being moved, as well as from sorrow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 arise	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 arise	aux
3	arise	arise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	5 joy	case
5	joy	joy	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 arise	obl
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 moved	cc
7	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 moved	aux:pass
8	moved	move	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 joy	conj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 sorrow	punct
10	as	as	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	14 sorrow	cc
11	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	10 as	fixed
12	as	as	ADP	_	10 as	fixed
13	from	from	ADP	_	14 sorrow	case
14	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 arise	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arise	may	Tears			joy		from sorrow	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	move	gerund · passive	Tears not said here						vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»

Option 3

Adults who are in good health do not shed tears

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 shed	nsubj
2	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 health	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 health	cop
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 health	case
5	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 health	amod
6	health	health	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Adults	acl:relcl
7	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 shed	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 shed	advmod
9	shed	shed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 shed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Adults			good health			tree rules
2	not shed	present · do-support	Adults	tears					vn substance_emission-43.4-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tear=Source

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Tears in adults are always a sign of anger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 sign	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 adults	case
3	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Tears	nmod
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 sign	cop
5	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 sign	advmod
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 sign	det
7	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 anger	case
9	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sign	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Tears in adults	a sign				of anger; always property	tree rules

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/adult-life/36-big-feelings-in-big-people/e4/