Exam question 4 · Rival teams and the older bully

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises verbal abuse directed at a child by an adult spectator at a sporting fixture?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, direct, sport · To what, where: verbal abuse

This is exam question 4 of lesson 472 «Rival teams and the older bully» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	verbal	verbal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 abuse	amod
10	abuse	abuse	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	directed	direct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 abuse	acl
12	at	at	ADP	_	14 child	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 child	det
14	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 directed	obl
15	by	by	ADP	_	18 spectator	case
16	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 spectator	det
17	adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 spectator	amod
18	spectator	spectator	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 directed	obl
19	at	at	ADP	_	22 fixture	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 fixture	det
21	sporting	sport	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	22 fixture	amod
22	fixture	fixture	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 spectator	nmod
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	verbal abuse	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	direct	participle	verbal abuse not said here	at a child; by a adult spectator at a sporting fixture	vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.predicate»: agent=Agent at child=Eventuality
4	sport	gerund			tree rules

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 child is responsible for having provoked it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 child	det
2	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 responsible	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 responsible	cop
4	responsible	responsible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	SCONJ	_	7 provoked	mark
6	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 provoked	aux
7	provoked	provoke	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 responsible	advcl
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 provoked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the child					responsible property	tree rules
2	provoke	gerund · perfect	the child not said here	child					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Responsibility lies with the adult and not the child

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Responsibility	responsibility	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lies	nsubj
2	lies	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 adult	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 adult	det
5	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lies	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 child	cc
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 child	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 child	det
9	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 adult	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	present	Responsibility					with the adult and the child	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The referee is obliged to disregard it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 referee	det
2	referee	referee	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 obliged	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 obliged	aux:pass
4	obliged	oblige	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 disregard	mark
6	disregard	disregard	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 obliged	xcomp
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 disregard	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	oblige	present · passive		the referee					vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result
2	disregard	to-infinitive		referee					vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4

Such conduct is customary and acceptable

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 conduct	amod
2	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 customary	compound
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 customary	cop
4	customary	customary	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 acceptable	cc
6	acceptable	acceptable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 customary	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		conduct customary					tree rules
2	be								tree rules

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/472-rival-teams-and-the-older-bully/e4/