Exam question 1 · The parent who left, and a new partner

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the responsibility for a parent's failure to maintain contact?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: parent · What happens: follow, characteris, maintain, fail · To what, where: responsibility, contact

This is exam question 1 of lesson 517 «The parent who left, and a new partner» 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 responsibility	det
10	responsibility	responsibility	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	for	for	ADP	_	15 failure	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 parent	det
13	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 failure	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 parent	case
15	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 responsibility	nmod
16	to	to	PART	_	17 maintain	mark
17	maintain	maintain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 failure	acl
18	contact	contact	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 maintain	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the responsibility	of the following statements; for a parent's failure; accurately property	tree rules
3	maintain	to-infinitive		contact		vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent contact=Theme
4	fail		a parent			nom failure «act 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

The failure is attributable to the child's past conduct

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 failure	det
2	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attributable	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 attributable	cop
4	attributable	attributable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	10 conduct	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 child	det
7	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 conduct	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 child	case
9	past	past	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 conduct	amod
10	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attributable	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the failure					to the child's past conduct; attributable property	tree rules
2	conduct		the child						nom conduct «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

The failure arises where a child neglects to telephone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 failure	det
2	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 arises	nsubj
3	arises	arise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	7 neglects	advmod
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 child	det
6	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 neglects	nsubj
7	neglects	neglect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 arises	advcl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 telephone	mark
9	telephone	telephone	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 neglects	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	arise	present	the failure	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	neglect	present	a child	vn neglect-75.1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not telephone speech: other	to-infinitive	a child not said here	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The failure is the remaining parent's in every case

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 failure	det
2	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 parent	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 parent	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 parent	det
5	remaining	remaining	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 parent	amod
6	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	's	's	PART	_	6 parent	case
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 case	case
9	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	10 case	det
10	case	case	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 parent	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the failure			every case		's the remaining parent	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The failure rests with the parent and never with the child

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 failure	det
2	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 rests	nsubj
3	rests	rest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 parent	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 parent	det
6	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 rests	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 child	cc
8	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	11 child	advmod
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 child	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 child	det
11	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 parent	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rest	present	the failure					with the parent and the child	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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