Test 4 · ★ · Screens, sleep, fairness and differences

Why is «You are great» a weaker compliment than «You were so patient helping me with maths»?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: You · What happens: be, help · To what, where: weaker compliment, me

This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 103 «Screens, sleep, fairness and differences» of the everyday 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	6 great	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 great	cop
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 great	punct
4	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 great	nsubj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 great	cop
6	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	»	»	PUNCT	_	6 great	punct
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 compliment	det
9	weaker	weak	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	10 compliment	amod
10	compliment	compliment	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 great	parataxis
11	than	than	SCONJ	_	16 patient	mark
12	«	«	PUNCT	_	16 patient	punct
13	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	16 patient	nsubj
14	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 patient	cop
15	so	so	ADV	_	16 patient	advmod
16	patient	patient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 compliment	acl
17	helping	help	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	16 patient	advcl
18	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	17 helping	obj
19	with	with	ADP	_	20 maths	case
20	maths	math	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 helping	obl
21	»	»	PUNCT	_	16 patient	punct
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 great	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	You			great property	tree rules
2	is in a quote	past	You	a weaker compliment not said here		patient property	tree rules
3	help in a quote	gerund	You not said here		me	with maths	vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary with math=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

Talking about maths is not allowed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Talking	talk	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 allowed	csubj:pass
2	about	about	ADP	_	3 maths	case
3	maths	math	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Talking	obl
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 allowed	aux:pass
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 allowed	advmod
6	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	gerund						about maths	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about math=Topic
2	not allow	present · passive	Talking						vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S_ING»

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A specific, true compliment means more

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 compliment	det
2	specific	specific	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 compliment	amod
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 specific	punct
4	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 compliment	amod
5	compliment	compliment	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 means	nsubj
6	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 means	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	a specific true compliment	more					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent more=Topic

Option 3

Long compliments are never believed by anybody

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 compliments	amod
2	compliments	compliment	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 believed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 believed	aux:pass
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 believed	advmod
5	believed	believe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 anybody	case
7	anybody	anybody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	5 believed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not believe	present · passive	anybody	Long compliments					vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus

Option 4

Short compliments are always rude

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 compliments	amod
2	compliments	compliment	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 rude	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 rude	cop
4	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	5 rude	advmod
5	rude	rude	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Short compliments					always, 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/everyday/103-screens-fairness-and-differences/t4/