Exam question 4 · Animals and "what animal are you?"

Ascertain the reason for which a whole fish is customarily served at the New Year meal.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, serve · To what, where: reason, whole fish, Year meal

This is exam question 4 of lesson 19 «Animals and "what animal are you?"» 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 served	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 fish	det
7	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 fish	amod
8	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 served	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 served	aux:pass
10	customarily	customarily	ADV	_	11 served	advmod
11	served	serve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
12	at	at	ADP	_	16 meal	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 meal	det
14	New	New	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 Year	compound
15	Year	Year	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 meal	compound
16	meal	meal	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 served	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	serve	present · passive		a whole fish		the Year meal		for the reason; customarily property	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme for which=Recipient

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 · ✓ the right answer

The word yú is homophonous with "surplus", betokening plenty each year

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 yú	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 yú	compound
3	yú	yú	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 homophonous	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 homophonous	cop
5	homophonous	homophonous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 surplus	case
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 surplus	punct
8	surplus	surplus	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 homophonous	obl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 homophonous	punct
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 betokening	punct
11	betokening	betoken	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 homophonous	conj
12	plenty	plenty	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 betokening	obj
13	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	14 year	det
14	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 betokening	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the word yú					with surplus; homophonous property	tree rules
2	betoken	gerund	the word yú not said here	plenty			year		tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Fish is prescribed by law at New Year

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prescribed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 prescribed	aux:pass
3	prescribed	prescribe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 law	case
5	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prescribed	obl
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 Year	case
7	New	New	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Year	compound
8	Year	Year	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 prescribed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prescribe	present · passive	law	Fish			at New Year		tree rules

Option 3

Fish is the sole meat available in winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 meat	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 meat	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 meat	det
4	sole	sole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 meat	amod
5	meat	meat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	available	available	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 meat	amod
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 winter	case
8	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 available	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Fish	the sole meat					tree rules

Option 4

The fish represents the Rat of the zodiac

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 represents	nsubj
3	represents	represent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Rat	det
5	Rat	Rat	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 represents	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 zodiac	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 zodiac	det
8	zodiac	zodiac	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 Rat	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	represent	present	the fish	the Rat of the zodiac					vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot rat=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/e4/