Exam question 4 · Hungry, tired, shy, excited

Ascertain the meaning of the expression "xiǎng jiā" as employed by a child residing temporarily away from home.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, expression, child · What happens: ascertain, xiǎng, employ, reside, mean · To what, where: meaning, expression

This is exam question 4 of lesson 17 «Hungry, tired, shy, excited» of the Chinese street 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 expression	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 expression	det
6	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 xiǎng	punct
8	xiǎng	xiǎng	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 expression	acl
9	jiā	jiā	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 xiǎng	flat
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 jiā	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 employed	mark
12	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 xiǎng	advcl
13	by	by	ADP	_	15 child	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 child	det
15	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 employed	obl
16	residing	reside	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 child	acl
17	temporarily	temporarily	ADV	_	18 away	advmod
18	away	away	ADV	_	16 residing	advmod
19	from	from	ADP	_	20 home	case
20	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 away	obl
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the expression		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	xiǎng in a quote	gerund	the expression not said here			tree rules
3	employ	participle	the expression not said here		by a child	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	reside	gerund	a child not said here		away property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	mean			the expression		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

A wish to purchase a house

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 wish	det
2	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 purchase	mark
4	purchase	purchase	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wish	acl
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 house	det
6	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 purchase	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purchase	to-infinitive		a house					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset house=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Homesickness, a longing for home

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Homesickness	homesickness	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 longing	punct
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 longing	det
4	longing	longing	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Homesickness	appos
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 home	case
6	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 longing	nmod

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

Option 3

A desire to eat at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 desire	det
2	desire	desire	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 eat	mark
4	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 desire	acl
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 once	case
6	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	4 eat	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	to-infinitive							vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

An intention to telephone a friend

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 intention	det
2	intention	intention	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 telephone	mark
4	telephone	telephone	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 intention	acl
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 friend	det
6	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 telephone	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	telephone speech: other	to-infinitive			a friend				vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent friend=Recipient

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/17-hungry-tired-shy-excited/e4/