Exam question 3 · Promises

Identify the status of a promise made under threat.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, make · To what, where: status, promise, threat

This is exam question 3 of lesson 199 «Promises» 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	3 status	det
3	status	status	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 promise	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 promise	det
6	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 status	nmod
7	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 promise	acl
8	under	under	ADP	_	9 threat	case
9	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 made	obl
10	.	.	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 status of a promise					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent status=Theme
2	make	participle		a promise not said here		threat			vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

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

It counts only if it was a pinky promise

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 counts	nsubj
2	counts	count	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	9 promise	advmod
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	9 promise	mark
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 promise	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 promise	cop
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 promise	det
8	pinky	pinky	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 promise	compound
9	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 counts	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	present	It						vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
2	is a a condition, not said to happen	past	it	a pinky promise					tree rules

Option 2

It counts only until the next school day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 counts	nsubj
2	counts	count	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	8 day	advmod
4	until	until	ADP	_	8 day	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 day	det
6	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 day	amod
7	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 day	compound
8	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 counts	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	present	It				day		vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It must be kept, since a promise is a promise

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 kept	nsubj:pass
2	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 kept	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 kept	aux:pass
4	kept	keep	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 promise	punct
6	since	since	ADP	_	8 promise	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 promise	det
8	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 promise	obl
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 promise	cop
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 promise	det
11	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 kept	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	must · passive		It					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	is a	present		a promise			since a promise		tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It does not count, and an adult should be told

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 count	nsubj
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 count	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 count	advmod
4	count	count	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 told	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 told	cc
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 adult	det
8	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 told	nsubj:pass
9	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 told	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 told	aux:pass
11	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 count	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not count	present · do-support	It						vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
2	tell speech: assert	should · passive		a adult					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient

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/199-promises/e3/