Exam question 2 · Family: mum, dad, brothers and sisters
Ascertain the principal distinction drawn in Mandarin terms for siblings.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, draw · To what, where: principal distinction, Mandarin terms
This is exam question 2 of lesson 9 «Family: mum, dad, brothers and sisters» 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 | 4 distinction | det |
| 3 | principal | principal | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 distinction | amod |
| 4 | distinction | distinction | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Ascertain | obj |
| 5 | drawn | draw | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 distinction | acl |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 terms | case |
| 7 | Mandarin | Mandarin | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 terms | compound |
| 8 | terms | term | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 drawn | obl |
| 9 | for | for | ADP | _ | 10 siblings | case |
| 10 | siblings | sibling | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 drawn | obl |
| 11 | . | . | 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 principal distinction | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent distinction=Topic | ||||
| 2 | draw | participle | the principal distinction not said here | Mandarin terms | for siblings | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in term=Destination |
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
Siblings are designated according to height
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Siblings | sibling | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 designated | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 designated | aux:pass |
| 3 | designated | designate | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | according | accord | VERB | ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 6 height | case |
| 5 | to | to | ADP | _ | 4 according | fixed |
| 6 | height | height | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 designated | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | designate | present · passive | Siblings | accord height | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 2 | accord | gerund | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
Option 2
No distinction of sex is drawn in any sibling term
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 2 distinction | det |
| 2 | distinction | distinction | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 drawn | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 sex | case |
| 4 | sex | sex | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 distinction | nmod |
| 5 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 drawn | aux:pass |
| 6 | drawn | draw | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 7 | in | in | ADP | _ | 10 term | case |
| 8 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 10 term | det |
| 9 | sibling | sibling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 term | compound |
| 10 | term | term | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 drawn | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | draw | present · passive | no distinction of sex | any sibling term | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in term=Destination | ||||
| 2 | distinguish | sex | nom distinction «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
Option 3
Siblings are designated solely by their given names, as in English
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Siblings | sibling | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 designated | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 designated | aux:pass |
| 3 | designated | designate | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | solely | solely | ADV | _ | 3 designated | advmod |
| 5 | by | by | ADP | _ | 8 names | case |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 names | nmod:poss |
| 7 | given | give | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 names | amod |
| 8 | names | name | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 designated | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 English | punct |
| 10 | as | as | ADP | _ | 12 English | case |
| 11 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 English | case |
| 12 | English | English | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 designated | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | designate | present · passive | Siblings's given names | Siblings | as English; solely property | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent subject=Theme as english=Attribute | |||
| 2 | give | participle | vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 3 | name | Siblings = sibling | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
Siblings are designated by whether they are older or younger
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Siblings | sibling | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 designated | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 designated | aux:pass |
| 3 | designated | designate | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | by | by | ADP | _ | 8 older | case |
| 5 | whether | whether | SCONJ | _ | 8 older | mark |
| 6 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 older | nsubj |
| 7 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 older | cop |
| 8 | older | old | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 3 designated | parataxis |
| 9 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 10 younger | cc |
| 10 | younger | young | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 8 older | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | designate | present · passive | Siblings | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 2 | is | present | Siblings = sibling | old property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | be | Siblings = sibling not said here | 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/9-family-mum-dad-brothers-sisters/e2/