Exam question 4 · Friendly teasing — when it's fun and when it stings

Ascertain the meaning of the expression "xiào sǐ wǒ le".

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, mean · To what, where: meaning, expression

This is exam question 4 of lesson 23 «Friendly teasing — when it's fun and when it stings» 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	_	9 sǐ	punct
8	xiào	xiào	X	Foreign=Yes	9 sǐ	flat:foreign
9	sǐ	sǐ	X	Foreign=Yes	11 le	dep
10	wǒ	wǒ	X	Foreign=Yes	11 le	compound
11	le	le	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 expression	nmod
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 le	punct
13	.	.	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 meaning of the expression wǒ le					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	mean			the expression wǒ le					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

I am gravely ill and must lie down at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	4 ill	nsubj
2	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ill	cop
3	gravely	gravely	ADV	_	4 ill	advmod
4	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 lie	cc
6	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 lie	aux
7	lie	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 ill	conj
8	down	down	ADV	_	7 lie	advmod
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 once	case
10	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	7 lie	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	I					gravely, ill property	tree rules
2	lie down	must	I not said here					down property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at once=Location

Option 2

I am about to depart

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 about	nsubj
2	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 about	cop
3	about	about	ADP	_	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 depart	mark
5	depart	depart	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 about	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	depart	to-infinitive							vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

That is exceedingly amusing, literally "laughing me to death"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 amusing	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 amusing	cop
3	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	_	4 amusing	advmod
4	amusing	amusing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 laughing	punct
6	literally	literally	ADV	_	8 laughing	advmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 laughing	punct
8	laughing	laugh	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 amusing	ccomp
9	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	8 laughing	obj
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 death	case
11	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 laughing	obl
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 laughing	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	That					amusing, exceedingly property	tree rules
2	laugh in a quote	gerund	That not said here	me				to death; literally property	vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme

Option 4

That is deeply saddening

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 saddening	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 saddening	aux
3	deeply	deeply	ADV	_	4 saddening	advmod
4	saddening	sadden	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sadden	present · progressive	That					deeply property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

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/23-friendly-teasing/e4/