Test 8 · ★★ · Family changes and grief

Why do adults use clear words like "died" with young children instead of "went to sleep"?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: adults, clear words · What happens: use, die, go · To what, where: clear words, sleep · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 · ★★ of lesson 214 «Family changes and grief» 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 use	advmod
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 use	aux
3	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 use	nsubj
4	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	clear	clear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 words	amod
6	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 use	obj
7	like	like	ADP	_	9 died	case
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 died	punct
9	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 words	acl:relcl
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 died	punct
11	with	with	ADP	_	13 children	case
12	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 children	amod
13	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 died	obl
14	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	17 went	case
15	of	of	ADP	_	14 instead	fixed
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 went	punct
17	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 use	parataxis
18	to	to	ADP	_	19 sleep	case
19	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 went	obl
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 went	punct
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 use	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	use	present · do-support	adults	clear words			vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent word=Theme clause=Eventuality
2	die in a quote	past	clear words not said here			with young children	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
3	go in a quote	past			sleep		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to sleep=Initial_Location

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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Clear words help children understand, and sleep words can make them afraid of sleeping

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Clear	clear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 words	amod
2	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 help	nsubj
3	help	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 help	obj
5	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 help	xcomp
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 make	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 make	cc
8	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 words	compound
9	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 make	nsubj
10	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 make	aux
11	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 help	conj
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 make	obj
13	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 make	xcomp
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 sleeping	case
15	sleeping	sleeping	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 afraid	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	help	present	Clear words	children		vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent child=Beneficiary clause=Theme
2	understand	infinitive	children not said here			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	make	can	sleep words	children = child	afraid property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset they=Product

Option 2

It does not matter which words are used

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 matter	nsubj
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 matter	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 matter	advmod
4	matter	matter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	6 words	det
6	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 used	nsubj:pass
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 used	aux:pass
8	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 matter	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not matter	present · do-support	It						tree rules
2	use	present · passive		which words					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3

"Died" sounds kinder than "asleep"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Died	punct
2	Died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 kinder	advcl
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Died	punct
4	sounds	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 kinder	cop
5	kinder	kind	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	than	than	SCONJ	_	8 asleep	mark
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 asleep	punct
8	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 kinder	advcl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 kinder	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die in a quote	past							vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	is	present						kind property	tree rules

Option 4

Children cannot understand clear words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 understand	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 understand	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 understand	advmod
4	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	clear	clear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 words	amod
6	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 understand	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not understand	can	Children	clear words					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus

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.

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