Exam question 1 · Words that hurt — what they mean, never to be said

Identify the course of conduct appropriate upon being addressed with a vulgar Mandarin injunction to depart.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, address, depart · To what, where: course

This is exam question 1 of lesson 24 «Words that hurt — what they mean, never to be said» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 course	det
3	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 conduct	case
5	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 course	nmod
6	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Identify	parataxis
7	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	9 addressed	mark
8	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 addressed	aux:pass
9	addressed	address	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 appropriate	xcomp
10	with	with	ADP	_	14 injunction	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 injunction	det
12	vulgar	vulgar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 injunction	amod
13	Mandarin	mandarin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 injunction	amod
14	injunction	injunction	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 addressed	obl
15	to	to	PART	_	16 depart	mark
16	depart	depart	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 injunction	acl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the course of conduct		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent course=Theme
2	address	gerund · passive	you not said here		with a vulgar Mandarin injunction	vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: with injunction=Theme
3	depart	to-infinitive	you not said here			vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

Repetition of the phrase at greater volume

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Repetition	repetition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 phrase	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 phrase	det
4	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Repetition	nmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 volume	case
6	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 volume	amod
7	volume	volume	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Repetition	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	repeat		the phrase			greater volume			nom repetition «event intransitive»: of=agent at=place

Option 2

Repetition of the phrase to an elder

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Repetition	repetition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 phrase	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 phrase	det
4	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Repetition	nmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 elder	case
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 elder	det
7	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Repetition	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	repeat		the phrase					to a elder	nom repetition «event intransitive»: of=agent to=obl

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Withdrawal without retaliation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Withdrawal	withdrawal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	without	without	ADP	_	3 retaliation	case
3	retaliation	retaliation	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Withdrawal	nmod

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

Option 4

Imitation of the phrase in jest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Imitation	imitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 phrase	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 phrase	det
4	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Imitation	nmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 jest	case
6	jest	jest	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 phrase	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	imitate			the phrase in jest					nom imitation «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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.

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