Exam question 2 · Why people lie, and what is not a lie

Identify the most common reason for which people tell lies.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, people · What happens: identify, tell · To what, where: common reason, lies · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 195 «Why people lie, and what is not a lie» 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	5 reason	det
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 common	advmod
4	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 reason	amod
5	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 tell	obl
8	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 tell	nsubj
9	tell	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	acl:relcl
10	lies	lie	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 tell	obj
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the common reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	tell speech: assert	present	people	lies				for the common reason	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent lie=Recipient

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

A habit of telling stories

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 habit	det
2	habit	habit	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	SCONJ	_	4 telling	mark
4	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 habit	acl
5	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 telling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund	a habit not said here	stories					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

A wish to make others happy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 wish	det
2	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 make	nsubj
3	to	to	PART	_	4 make	mark
4	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 make	obj
6	happy	happy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 make	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	to-infinitive	a wish	others				happy property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset other=Product

Option 3

Boredom during the day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Boredom	boredom	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	during	during	ADP	_	4 day	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 day	det
4	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Boredom	nmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Fear of being punished

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	4 punished	mark
3	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 punished	aux:pass
4	punished	punish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Fear	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	punish	gerund · passive		Fear not said here					vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»

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/195-why-people-lie/e2/