Test 7 · ★ · Queues, taking turns and interrupting

Which is the polite way to interrupt two grown-ups talking?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: two grown ups · What happens: be, interrupt, grow, talk · To what, where: polite way, two grown ups

This is test 7 · ★ of lesson 223 «Queues, taking turns and interrupting» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 way	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 way	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 way	det
4	polite	polite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 way	amod
5	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 interrupt	mark
7	interrupt	interrupt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 way	acl
8	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 ups	nummod
9	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 ups	amod
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 ups	punct
11	ups	up	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 interrupt	obj
12	talking	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 ups	acl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 way	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	present		the polite way	tree rules
2	interrupt	to-infinitive		two grown ups	tree rules
3	grow	participle			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	talk	gerund	two grown ups not said here		vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

Talking over them until they stop

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Talking	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 stop	csubj
2	over	over	ADP	_	3 them	case
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Talking	obl
4	until	until	SCONJ	_	6 stop	mark
5	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 stop	nsubj
6	stop	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	gerund						over them = they	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	stop	present	they						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Clapping your hands at them loudly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Clapping	clap	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 hands	nmod:poss
3	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Clapping	obj
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 them	case
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Clapping	obl
6	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	1 Clapping	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	clap	gerund		your hands				at hands = hand; loudly property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hand=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

"Sorry to interrupt, but..."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 interrupt	punct
2	Sorry	sorry	INTJ	_	4 interrupt	discourse
3	to	to	PART	_	4 interrupt	mark
4	interrupt	interrupt	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 but	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	4 interrupt	cc
7	...	...	PUNCT	_	4 interrupt	punct
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 interrupt	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	interrupt in a quote	to-infinitive							tree rules

Option 4

Pulling at their clothes and coats

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pulling	pull	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	4 clothes	case
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 clothes	nmod:poss
4	clothes	clothes	NOUN	Number=Ptan	1 Pulling	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 coats	cc
6	coats	coat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 clothes	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	gerund						at their clothes and coats	vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at clothes=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/223-queues-taking-turns-and-interrupting/t7/