Exam question 2 · Bullying and how to stop it

Identify the distinction between telling and tattling.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, distinction · What happens: identify, tell, tattle · To what, where: distinction · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 55 «Bullying and how to stop it» 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	3 distinction	det
3	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	between	between	ADP	_	5 telling	mark
5	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 distinction	acl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 tattling	cc
7	tattling	tattle	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 telling	conj
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the distinction	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent distinction=Theme
2	tell speech: assert	gerund	the distinction not said here		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	tattle	gerund	the distinction not said here		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

Telling and tattling are identical

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 identical	csubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 tattling	cc
3	tattling	tattling	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Telling	conj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 identical	cop
5	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund							vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	Telling					identical property	tree rules

Option 2

Telling is done only by teachers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 done	csubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 done	aux:pass
3	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	3 done	advmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 teachers	case
6	teachers	teacher	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 done	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund							vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	do	present · passive	Telling					by teachers	vn act-114-1 «NP V»

Option 3

Tattling is done only to protect others, whereas telling is done in order to punish them severely

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tattling	tattling	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 done	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 done	aux:pass
3	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 protect	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	6 protect	mark
6	protect	protect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 done	advcl
7	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 protect	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 done	punct
9	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	12 done	mark
10	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 done	csubj:pass
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 done	aux:pass
12	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 done	parataxis
13	in	in	ADP	_	14 order	case
14	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 done	obl
15	to	to	PART	_	16 punish	mark
16	punish	punish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 done	advcl
17	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 punish	obj
18	severely	severely	ADV	_	16 punish	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	present · passive		Tattling			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality
2	protect	to-infinitive		others			vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent other=Beneficiary
3	tell speech: assert	gerund					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	do	present · passive	telling		order		vn act-114-1 «NP V»
5	punish	to-infinitive	telling not said here	others = other		severely property	vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Telling seeks to keep a person safe, whereas tattling seeks only to get a person into trouble

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 seeks	nsubj
2	seeks	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 keep	mark
4	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 seeks	xcomp
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 person	det
6	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 keep	obj
7	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 keep	xcomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 seeks	punct
9	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	11 seeks	mark
10	tattling	tattling	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 seeks	nsubj
11	seeks	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 seeks	conj
12	only	only	ADV	_	14 get	advmod
13	to	to	PART	_	14 get	mark
14	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 seeks	xcomp
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 person	det
16	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 get	obj
17	into	into	ADP	_	18 trouble	case
18	trouble	trouble	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 get	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	seek	present					tree rules
3	keep not said to happen	to-infinitive		a person		safe property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Theme
4	seek	present	tattling				tree rules
5	get not said to happen	to-infinitive	tattling not said here	a person	trouble		vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer person=Stimulus

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/55-bullying/e2/