Exam question 2 · Grandparents abroad and grandparents you never met

Identify the principal reason why a single mispronounced tone may alter the meaning of a word in Mandarin.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, single mispronounced tone · What happens: identify, mispronounce, alter, mean · To what, where: principal reason, meaning, word

This is exam question 2 of lesson 513 «Grandparents abroad and grandparents you never met» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	11 alter	advmod
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 tone	det
7	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 tone	amod
8	mispronounced	mispronounce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 tone	amod
9	tone	tone	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 alter	nsubj
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 alter	aux
11	alter	alter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 meaning	det
13	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 alter	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 word	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 word	det
16	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 meaning	nmod
17	in	in	ADP	_	18 Mandarin	case
18	Mandarin	Mandarin	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 word	nmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	mispronounce	participle			tree rules
3	alter	may	a single mispronounced tone	the meaning of a word in Mandarin	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient
4	mean			a word in Mandarin	nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

Mandarin words possess no fixed meaning of any kind

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mandarin	mandarin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 words	amod
2	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	nsubj
3	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 meaning	det
5	fixed	fixed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 meaning	amod
6	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possess	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 kind	case
8	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 kind	det
9	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 meaning	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Mandarin words	no fixed meaning of any kind					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot meaning=Theme
2	mean			any kind					nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Only the first syllable of each word carries meaning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	4 syllable	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 syllable	det
3	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 syllable	amod
4	syllable	syllable	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 carries	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 word	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 word	det
7	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 syllable	nmod
8	carries	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 carries	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	present	the first syllable of each word	meaning					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme

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

Tone is part of a word's meaning in that language

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tone	tone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 part	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 part	cop
3	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	8 meaning	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 word	det
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 meaning	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 word	case
8	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 part	nmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 language	case
10	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	11 language	det
11	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 part	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Tone	part		that language		of a word's meaning	tree rules
2	mean		a word						nom meaning «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Mandarin is spoken without any variation in pitch

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mandarin	Mandarin	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 spoken	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 spoken	aux:pass
3	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	without	without	ADP	_	6 variation	case
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 variation	det
6	variation	variation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 spoken	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 pitch	case
8	pitch	pitch	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 variation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	present · passive		Mandarin				without any variation in pitch	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/513-grandparents-abroad-and-grandparents-you-never-met/e2/