Test 9 · ★ · Greetings, goodbyes, please and thank you, and table manners

Why is it impolite to stand chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: it · What happens: be, stand · To what, where: chopsticks, bowl

This is test 9 · ★ 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 impolite	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 impolite	cop
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 impolite	nsubj
4	impolite	impolite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 stand	mark
6	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 impolite	xcomp
7	chopsticks	chopstick	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 stand	obj
8	upright	upright	ADV	_	6 stand	advmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 bowl	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 bowl	det
11	bowl	bowl	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stand	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 rice	case
13	rice	rice	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 bowl	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 impolite	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	it					impolite property	tree rules
2	stand	to-infinitive		chopsticks		a bowl of rice		upright property	vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent chopstick=Theme in bowl=Destination

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

The rice will go cold faster

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rice	det
2	rice	rice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 go	nsubj
3	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 go	aux
4	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 go	xcomp
6	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 go	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	future	the rice					cold, fast property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

It means you want more rice

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 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 want	nsubj
4	want	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 means	ccomp
5	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 rice	amod
6	rice	rice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 want	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	want	present	you	more rice					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot rice=Theme

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

In some Asian cultures it looks like a funeral custom

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	4 cultures	case
2	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	4 cultures	det
3	Asian	Asian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cultures	amod
4	cultures	culture	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 looks	obl
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 looks	nsubj
6	looks	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	like	like	ADP	_	10 custom	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 custom	det
9	funeral	funeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 custom	compound
10	custom	custom	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 looks	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	present	it					like a funeral custom; in some Asian cultures	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in culture=Theme

Option 4

The chopsticks will break if they stand in rice too long

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 chopsticks	det
2	chopsticks	chopstick	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 break	nsubj
3	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 break	aux
4	break	break	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 stand	mark
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 stand	nsubj
7	stand	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 break	advcl
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 rice	case
9	rice	rice	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 stand	obl
10	too	too	ADV	_	11 long	advmod
11	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	7 stand	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	future	the chopsticks						vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	stand a condition, not said to happen	present	chopsticks = chopstick			rice		long property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in rice=Location

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/t9/