Test 9 · Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate

«shut up, it's ní hǎo, not nǐ hǎo, you're saying it wrong» Who is right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: shut up, say, be · To what, where: ní, it · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 shut	punct
2	shut	shut	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	up	up	ADP	_	2 shut	compound:prt
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 ní	punct
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 ní	nsubj
6	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 ní	cop
7	ní	ní	X	Foreign=Yes	2 shut	obj
8	hǎo	hǎo	X	Foreign=Yes	7 ní	flat:foreign
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 nǐ	punct
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 nǐ	advmod
11	nǐ	nǐ	X	Foreign=Yes	2 shut	obj
12	hǎo	hǎo	X	Foreign=Yes	11 nǐ	flat:foreign
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 saying	punct
14	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	16 saying	nsubj
15	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 saying	aux
16	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 shut	advcl
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 saying	obj
18	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 saying	ccomp
19	»	»	PUNCT	_	18 wrong	punct
20	Who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	22 right	nsubj
21	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 right	cop
22	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 wrong	parataxis
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 shut	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	shut up in a quote	imperative	you not said here	ní		tree rules
2	say speech: assert in a quote	present · progressive	you	it		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic
3	is	present			right property	tree rules

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

Only you; nǐ never ever changes, whatever comes next

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	2 you	advmod
2	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	10 comes	nsubj
3	;	;	PUNCT	_	10 comes	punct
4	nǐ	nǐ	X	Foreign=Yes	10 comes	nsubj
5	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	7 changes	advmod
6	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	7 changes	advmod
7	changes	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 nǐ	advcl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 whatever	punct
9	whatever	whatever	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 nǐ	appos
10	comes	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	next	next	ADV	_	10 comes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present	you not said here				ever		vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	come	present	you					next property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Nobody; the word is nīn hǎo

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	;	;	PUNCT	_	6 nīn	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 word	det
4	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 nīn	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 nīn	cop
6	nīn	nīn	X	Foreign=Yes	1 Nobody	appos
7	hǎo	hǎo	X	Foreign=Yes	6 nīn	flat:foreign

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Only the grumpy kid; nǐ does not exist

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	4 kid	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 kid	det
3	grumpy	grumpy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 kid	amod
4	kid	kid	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 nǐ	nmod:poss
5	;	;	PUNCT	_	4 kid	punct
6	nǐ	nǐ	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 exist	nsubj
7	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 exist	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 exist	advmod
9	exist	exist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not exist	present · do-support	the grumpy kid's nǐ						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Both: it is written nǐ, but said rising before hǎo

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	9 said	nsubj
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	5 written	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 written	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 written	aux:pass
5	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Both	acl
6	nǐ	nǐ	X	Foreign=Yes	5 written	parataxis
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 said	punct
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 said	cc
9	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	rising	rise	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 said	xcomp
11	before	before	ADP	_	12 hǎo	case
12	hǎo	hǎo	X	Foreign=Yes	10 rising	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	write	present · passive		it		vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	say speech: assert	past	Both			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	rise	gerund	Both not said here		hǎo	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before hǎo=Location

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/t9/