Test 10 · Teasing and laughing at others

Which is TRUE about whispering mean things?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be, whisper · To what, where: mean things

This is test 10 of lesson 346 «Teasing and laughing at others» 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	3 TRUE	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 TRUE	cop
3	TRUE	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	about	about	SCONJ	_	5 whispering	mark
5	whispering	whisper	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 TRUE	advcl
6	mean	mean	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 things	amod
7	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 whispering	obj
8	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 TRUE	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						true property	tree rules
2	whisper speech: assert	gerund		mean things					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Topic

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's harmless because it's very quiet

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	3 harmless	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 harmless	cop
3	harmless	harmless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	because	because	SCONJ	_	8 quiet	mark
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 quiet	nsubj
6	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 quiet	cop
7	very	very	ADV	_	8 quiet	advmod
8	quiet	quiet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 harmless	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					harmless property	tree rules
2	is	present	it					quiet property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It's as hurtful as saying them aloud

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 hurtful	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 hurtful	cop
3	as	as	ADV	_	4 hurtful	advmod
4	hurtful	hurtful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	as	as	SCONJ	_	6 saying	mark
6	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 hurtful	advcl
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 saying	obj
8	aloud	aloud	ADV	_	6 saying	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					hurtful property	tree rules
2	say speech: assert	gerund		them = they				aloud property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Topic

Option 3

It's fine if she doesn't hear all of it

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	3 fine	expl
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 fine	cop
3	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 hear	mark
5	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 hear	nsubj
6	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 hear	aux
7	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 hear	advmod
8	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 fine	csubj
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	8 hear	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 it	case
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 all	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						fine property	tree rules
2	not hear a condition, not said to happen	present · do-support	she	all					vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer all=Stimulus

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It's kinder than saying them out loud

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	3 kinder	expl
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 kinder	cop
3	kinder	kind	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	than	than	SCONJ	_	5 saying	mark
5	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 kinder	advcl
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 saying	obj
7	out	out	ADV	_	8 loud	advmod
8	loud	loud	ADV	_	5 saying	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						kind property	tree rules
2	say speech: assert	gerund		them = they				loud property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Topic

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/346-teasing-and-laughing-at-others/t10/