Exam question 1 · Greeting friends and relatives

Identify the principal manner of speaking appropriate to a relative who hears with difficulty.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, principal manner, relative · What happens: identify, speak, hear · To what, where: principal manner · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 122 «Greeting friends and relatives» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 manner	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 manner	amod
4	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 speaking	mark
6	speaking	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 manner	acl
7	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 speaking	xcomp
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 relative	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 relative	det
10	relative	relative	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 speaking	obl
11	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 hears	nsubj
12	hears	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 relative	acl:relcl
13	with	with	ADP	_	14 difficulty	case
14	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 hears	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal manner		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent manner=Theme
2	speak speech: other	gerund	the principal manner not said here		to a relative; appropriate property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to relative=Co-Agent
3	hear	present	a relative		with difficulty	vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer

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

Shout loudly from the next room over

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shout	shout	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	1 Shout	advmod
3	from	from	ADP	_	6 room	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 room	det
5	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 room	amod
6	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Shout	obl
7	over	over	ADV	_	1 Shout	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	imperative	you not said here			the next room		loudly, over property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Face them and speak clearly, a bit louder

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Face	face	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Face	obj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 speak	cc
4	speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Face	conj
5	clearly	clearly	ADV	_	4 speak	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 bit	punct
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 bit	det
8	bit	bit	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Face	obl
9	louder	loud	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 bit	amod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	face	imperative	you not said here	them = they				a bit obl	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Destination
2	speak speech: other	present	you not said here					clearly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Whisper close behind their back

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whisper	whisper	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	close	close	ADV	Degree=Pos	1 Whisper	advmod
3	behind	behind	ADP	_	5 back	case
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 back	nmod:poss
5	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 close	obl

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

Option 4

Speak quickly so it takes less time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	quickly	quickly	ADV	_	1 Speak	advmod
3	so	so	SCONJ	_	5 takes	mark
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 takes	nsubj
5	takes	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Speak	advcl
6	less	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 time	amod
7	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 takes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	imperative	you not said here					quickly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	take	present	it				time		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: 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/122-greeting-friends-and-relatives/e1/