Test 10 · ★ · Greetings, goodbyes, please and thank you, and table manners

Which is the most polite way to get a stranger's attention?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: stranger · What happens: be, get, attend · To what, where: polite way, attention

This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 296 «Greetings, goodbyes, please and thank you, and table manners» 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	6 way	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 way	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 way	det
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 polite	advmod
5	polite	polite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 way	amod
6	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 get	mark
8	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 way	acl
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 stranger	det
10	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 attention	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 stranger	case
12	attention	attention	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 get	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 way	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	present		the polite way	tree rules
2	get	to-infinitive		a stranger's attention	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer attention=Stimulus
3	attend		a stranger		nom attention «cognition intransitive»: poss=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 · ← Mova's choice

Pulling at their sleeve

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 sleeve	case
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 sleeve	nmod:poss
4	sleeve	sleeve	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Pulling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	gerund						at their sleeve	vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at sleeve=Theme

Option 2

Whistling loudly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whistling	whistle	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	1 Whistling	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	whistle	gerund						loudly property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Clapping your hands near them

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	near	near	ADP	_	5 them	case
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Clapping	obl

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Saying «Excuse me»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	«	«	PUNCT	_	3 Excuse	punct
3	Excuse	excuse	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Saying	ccomp
4	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 Excuse	obj
5	»	»	PUNCT	_	3 Excuse	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	gerund							vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	excuse in a quote	infinitive		me					vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=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/296-greetings-goodbyes-and-table-manners/t10/