Test 1 · ★★ · The four tones: same sound, different meaning

«ming says ask for táng at the shop, it means soup innit» What happens if you do?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: ming, it, you · What happens: say, ask, mean, happen, do · To what, where: shop, soup innit · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★★ of lesson 2 «The four tones: same sound, different meaning» 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	_	3 says	punct
2	ming	ming	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	ask	ask	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	3 says	ccomp
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 táng	case
6	táng	táng	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ask	obl
7	at	at	ADP	_	9 shop	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 shop	det
9	shop	shop	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ask	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 means	punct
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 means	nsubj
12	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 says	parataxis
13	soup	soup	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 innit	compound
14	innit	innit	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 means	obj
15	»	»	PUNCT	_	14 innit	punct
16	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	17 happens	nsubj
17	happens	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 means	ccomp
18	if	if	SCONJ	_	20 do	mark
19	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	20 do	nsubj
20	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 happens	advcl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	present	ming				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	ask speech: ask in a quote	infinitive			the shop	for táng	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	mean in a quote	present	it	soup innit			tree rules
4	happen	present					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	do a condition, not said to happen	present	you				vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

You get a horse

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	2 get	nsubj
2	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 horse	det
4	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 get	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	present	You	a horse					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer horse=Stimulus

Option 2

You get soup, he is right

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	2 get	nsubj
2	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	soup	soup	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 get	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 get	punct
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 right	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 right	cop
7	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 get	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	present	You	soup					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer soup=Stimulus
2	is	present	he					right property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

You get sweets; soup is tāng

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	2 get	nsubj
2	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	sweets	sweet	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 get	obj
4	;	;	PUNCT	_	7 tāng	punct
5	soup	soup	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 tāng	compound
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 tāng	cop
7	tāng	tāng	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 get	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	present	You	sweets					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sweet=Stimulus
2	is a	present		soup tāng					tree rules

Option 4

You get told off for being rude

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 told	nsubj:pass
2	get	get	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 told	aux:pass
3	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	off	off	ADP	_	3 told	compound:prt
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 rude	case
6	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 rude	cop
7	rude	rude	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 told	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell off speech: assert	present · passive		You					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
2	is	gerund						rude property	tree rules

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/t1/