Exam question 1 · Greeting adults and teachers

State the form of address appropriate for an adult until such time as that adult requests the use of a first name.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, adult · What happens: state, request, form, use · To what, where: form, use, address, first name

This is exam question 1 of lesson 121 «Greeting adults and teachers» of the everyday 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	State	state	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 form	det
3	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 address	case
5	address	address	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 form	nmod
6	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 State	conj
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 adult	case
8	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 adult	det
9	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 appropriate	obl
10	until	until	ADP	_	12 time	case
11	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 time	amod
12	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	obl
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	16 requests	mark
14	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	15 adult	det
15	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 requests	nsubj
16	requests	request	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 State	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 use	det
18	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 requests	obj
19	of	of	ADP	_	22 name	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 name	det
21	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	22 name	amod
22	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 use	nmod
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	state speech: other	imperative	you not said here	the form of address	time	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent form=Topic
2	request	present	that adult	the use of a first name		vn beg-58.2 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent use=Recipient
3	form			address		nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient
4	use			a first name		nom use «act 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

The word "mate" or "buddy" alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 mate	punct
4	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 word	appos
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 mate	punct
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 buddy	cc
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 buddy	punct
8	buddy	buddy	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 word	conj
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 buddy	punct
10	alone	alone	ADV	_	8 buddy	advmod

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

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The adult's first name used alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 adult	det
2	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 name	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 adult	case
4	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 name	amod
5	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 name	acl
7	alone	alone	ADV	_	6 used	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	participle		the adult's first name not said here				alone property	vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	name		the adult						nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Mr, Mrs, Ms or Dr with the surname

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mr	Mr	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 Mrs	punct
3	Mrs	Mrs	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Mr	conj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 Ms	punct
5	Ms	Ms	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Mr	conj
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 Dr	cc
7	Dr	Dr	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Ms	conj
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 surname	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 surname	det
10	surname	surname	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 Ms	nmod

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

Option 4

The adult's surname used alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 adult	det
2	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 surname	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 adult	case
4	surname	surname	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 used	nsubj
5	used	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	5 used	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	past	the adult's surname					alone property	vn eat-39.1 «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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/121-greeting-adults-and-teachers/e1/