Exam question 2 · The four tones: same sound, different meaning

Ascertain the meaning of the syllable shí when pronounced with a rising tone.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, pronounce, rise, mean · To what, where: meaning, syllable shí

This is exam question 2 of lesson 2 «The four tones: same sound, different meaning» 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	_	7 shí	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 shí	det
6	syllable	syllable	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 shí	compound
7	shí	shí	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
8	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	9 pronounced	advmod
9	pronounced	pronounce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 shí	acl
10	with	with	ADP	_	13 tone	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 tone	det
12	rising	rise	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 tone	amod
13	tone	tone	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 pronounced	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the syllable shí		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	pronounce	participle			with a rising tone	vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent with tone=Manner
3	rise	gerund				vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	mean			the syllable shí		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

Excrement

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Excrement	excrement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 2

To lose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 lose	mark
2	lose	lose	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	to-infinitive							vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Ten

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root

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

Option 4

To be

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 be	mark
2	be	be	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	to-infinitive							vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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/2-the-four-tones/e2/