Test 19 · ★★ · Telling when someone may be lying

my mate swears "cross my heart" he saw a shark in the leisure centre pool, so it must be true innit

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: mate, shark · What happens: swear, cross, see, be · To what, where: heart, shark, centre pool · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 19 · ★★ of lesson 198 «Telling when someone may be lying» 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	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 swears	nsubj
3	swears	swear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 cross	punct
5	cross	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 swears	ccomp
6	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 heart	nmod:poss
7	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cross	obj
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 cross	punct
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 saw	nsubj
10	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 swears	ccomp
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 shark	det
12	shark	shark	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 saw	obj
13	in	in	ADP	_	17 pool	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 pool	det
15	leisure	leisure	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 centre	compound
16	centre	centre	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 pool	compound
17	pool	pool	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 saw	obl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 true	punct
19	so	so	ADV	_	23 true	advmod
20	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 true	nsubj
21	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	23 true	aux
22	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	23 true	cop
23	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 swears	parataxis
24	innit	innit	PROPN	_	23 true	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	swear	present	my mate				vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	cross in a quote	infinitive	my mate not said here	my heart			vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heart=Patient
3	see	past	mate	a shark	the centre pool		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer shark=Stimulus
4	is	must	shark			true property	tree rules

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

Call him a liar in front of everyone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Call	call	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Call	obj
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 liar	det
4	liar	liar	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Call	xcomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 front	case
6	front	front	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Call	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 everyone	case
8	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	6 front	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	call	imperative	you not said here		him = he	front of everyone			vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient

Option 2

Believe it if he swears twice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Believe	believe	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Believe	obj
3	if	if	SCONJ	_	5 swears	mark
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 swears	nsubj
5	swears	swear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Believe	advcl
6	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	5 swears	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	believe	imperative	you not said here	it					vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
2	swear a condition, not said to happen	present	he					twice property	vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

No; swearing harder doesn't make it true, unusual claims need evidence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	3 swearing	discourse
2	;	;	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	swearing	swear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 make	csubj
4	harder	hard	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 swearing	advmod
5	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 make	aux
6	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 make	advmod
7	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 make	obj
9	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 make	xcomp
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 need	punct
11	unusual	unusual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 claims	amod
12	claims	claim	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 need	nsubj
13	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 make	parataxis
14	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 need	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	swear	gerund			hard property	vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	not make	present · do-support	swearing	it	true property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product
3	need	present	unusual claims	evidence		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot evidence=Theme

Option 4

Yes, swearing proves it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 proves	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	swearing	swearing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 proves	nsubj
4	proves	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 proves	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	present	swearing	it					vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

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/198-telling-when-someone-may-be-lying/t19/