Test 10 · ★ · Describing: senses, showing and precise words

Why do readers enjoy "show, don't tell"?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: readers · What happens: enjoy, not tell · To what, where: show · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 41 «Describing: senses, showing and precise words» of the English 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 enjoy	advmod
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 enjoy	aux
3	readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 enjoy	nsubj
4	enjoy	enjoy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 enjoy	punct
6	show	show	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 enjoy	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 tell	punct
8	do	do	AUX	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	10 tell	aux
9	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 tell	advmod
10	tell	tell	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 enjoy	parataxis
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 tell	punct
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 enjoy	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enjoy	present · do-support	readers	show					tree rules
2	not tell speech: assert in a quote	infinitive · do-support							vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «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

Telling is not allowed in any published books

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Telling	tell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 allowed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 allowed	aux:pass
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 allowed	advmod
4	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 books	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 books	det
7	published	publish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 books	amod
8	books	book	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 allowed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	where	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not allow	present · passive	any published books	vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Beneficiary
3	publish	participle		vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It means the story has no words in it, only pictures

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 story	det
4	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 has	nsubj
5	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 means	ccomp
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 words	det
7	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 has	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 it	case
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 words	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 pictures	punct
11	only	only	ADV	_	12 pictures	advmod
12	pictures	picture	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 means	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	have	present	the story	no words		it			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient

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

They get to work out the feeling themselves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 get	nsubj
2	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 work	mark
4	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 get	xcomp
5	out	out	ADP	_	4 work	compound:prt
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 feeling	det
7	feeling	feeling	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 work	obj
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 work	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	present	They						vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	work out	to-infinitive	They not said here	the feeling				themselves = they obl	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feeling=Topic

Option 4

It is always much shorter than just telling

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 shorter	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 shorter	cop
3	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 much	advmod
4	much	much	ADV	_	5 shorter	advmod
5	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	than	than	SCONJ	_	8 telling	mark
7	just	just	ADV	_	8 telling	advmod
8	telling	tell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 shorter	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					short property	tree rules
2	tell speech: assert	gerund							vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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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