Test 1 · ★ · Handshakes, waves and greetings around the world

Why is it kinder to wave than to shake hands when you have a cold?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: it, you · What happens: be, wave, shake, have · To what, where: hands, cold

This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 124 «Handshakes, waves and greetings around the world» 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	4 kinder	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 kinder	cop
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 kinder	nsubj
4	kinder	kind	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 wave	mark
6	wave	wave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 kinder	csubj
7	than	than	SCONJ	_	9 shake	mark
8	to	to	PART	_	9 shake	mark
9	shake	shake	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 wave	xcomp
10	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 shake	obj
11	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 have	advmod
12	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	13 have	nsubj
13	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 shake	advcl
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 cold	det
15	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 have	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 kinder	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	it		kind property	tree rules
2	wave	to-infinitive				tree rules
3	shake	to-infinitive		hands		vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent hand=Patient
4	have	present	you	a cold		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cold=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

Because a wave is always more polite than a handshake, cold or not

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	7 polite	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 wave	det
3	wave	wave	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 polite	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 polite	cop
5	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 polite	advmod
6	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	7 polite	advmod
7	polite	polite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	than	than	ADP	_	10 handshake	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 handshake	det
10	handshake	handshake	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 polite	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 cold	punct
12	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 polite	conj
13	or	or	CCONJ	_	14 not	cc
14	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 polite	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a wave					than a handshake; always, polite property	tree rules
2	be		a wave not said here						tree rules

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

Germs spread through hands, and waving protects the other person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 spread	nsubj
2	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	through	through	ADP	_	4 hands	case
4	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 spread	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 protects	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 protects	cc
7	waving	wave	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 protects	nsubj
8	protects	protect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 spread	parataxis
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 person	det
10	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 person	amod
11	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 protects	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	where	roles by
1	spread	present	Germs		hands	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through hand=Location
2	wave	gerund				vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	protect	present		the other person		vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Beneficiary

Option 3

Because shaking hands is not allowed in winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	6 allowed	mark
2	shaking	shake	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 allowed	csubj:pass
3	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 shaking	obj
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
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 winter	case
8	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 allowed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shake	gerund		hands					vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent hand=Patient
2	not allow	present · passive	shaking				winter		vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S_ING»

Option 4

Because a cold makes your hands too weak to shake

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 makes	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 cold	det
3	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 makes	nsubj
4	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 weak	advcl
5	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 hands	nmod:poss
6	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 makes	obj
7	too	too	ADV	_	8 weak	advmod
8	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	to	to	PART	_	10 shake	mark
10	shake	shake	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 weak	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	a cold	your hands					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset hand=Product
2	shake	to-infinitive							vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

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/124-handshakes-waves-and-local-customs/t1/