Test 3 · Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate

What would happen if you said a big «hāi!» to Ming's grandad?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: happen, say · To what, where: big hāi · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 of lesson 1 «Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate» of the Chinese street 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.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 said	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 said	nsubj
6	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 hāi	det
8	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 hāi	amod
9	«	«	PUNCT	_	10 hāi	punct
10	hāi	hāi	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	obj
11	!	!	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct
13	to	to	PART	_	16 grandad	mark
14	Ming	Ming	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 grandad	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 Ming	case
16	grandad	grandad	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	advcl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	say speech: assert a condition, not said to happen	past	you	a big hāi					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent hāi=Topic

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

Nothing, hāi is the most polite hello

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 hāi	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	hāi	hāi	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 hello	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 hello	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 hello	det
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 polite	advmod
7	polite	polite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 hello	amod
8	hello	hello	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Nothing hāi	the polite hello					tree rules

Option 2

It means «go away» in Chinese

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 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 go	punct
4	go	go	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 means	ccomp
5	away	away	ADV	_	4 go	advmod
6	»	»	PUNCT	_	4 go	punct
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 Chinese	case
8	Chinese	Chinese	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 go	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	go away in a quote	infinitive				Chinese		away property	vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in chinese=Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It would sound a bit too cheeky; nín hǎo makes him beam

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 sound	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 sound	aux
3	sound	sound	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 bit	det
5	bit	bit	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cheeky	obl:unmarked
6	too	too	ADV	_	7 cheeky	advmod
7	cheeky	cheeky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 sound	xcomp
8	;	;	PUNCT	_	11 makes	punct
9	nín	nín	X	Foreign=Yes	11 makes	nsubj
10	hǎo	hǎo	X	Foreign=Yes	9 nín	flat:foreign
11	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 sound	parataxis
12	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 makes	obj
13	beam	beam	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 makes	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	sound	would	It		cheeky property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
2	make	present	nín	him = he		tree rules
3	beam	infinitive	him = he not said here			vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

He would not understand any English at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 understand	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 understand	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 understand	advmod
4	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 English	det
6	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 understand	obj
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 all	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 understand	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not understand	would	He	any English		all			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer english=Stimulus

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/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/t3/