Exam question 4 · Thinking cleverly about people

It being given that a person's actions are observed, determine what may be known of them.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: person · What happens: give, observe, determine, know, act · To what, where: It, actions

This is exam question 4 of lesson 60 «Thinking cleverly about people» 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 given	nsubj:pass
2	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 given	aux:pass
3	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 observed	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 person	det
6	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 actions	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 person	case
8	actions	action	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 observed	nsubj:pass
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 observed	aux:pass
10	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 determine	advcl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 observed	punct
12	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	3 given	parataxis
13	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	16 known	nsubj:pass
14	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 known	aux
15	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	16 known	aux:pass
16	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 given	parataxis
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 them	case
18	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 known	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 given	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	gerund · passive		It		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	observe	present · passive		a person's actions		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic
3	determine	infinitive				vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	know	may · passive			of actions = action	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus
5	act		a person			nom action «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

Both what the person does and always the reason why

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	CCONJ	_	2 what	cc:preconj
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 person	det
4	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 does	nsubj
5	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 reason	cc
7	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	9 reason	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 reason	det
9	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	conj
10	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	2 what	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	the person						vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

What the person does, but not always why

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	nsubj
4	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	acl:relcl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 why	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 why	cc
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 always	advmod
8	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	9 why	advmod
9	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	1 What	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	the person						vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Only the person's private thoughts and feelings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 person	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 thoughts	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 person	case
5	private	private	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 thoughts	amod
6	thoughts	thought	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 feelings	cc
8	feelings	feeling	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 thoughts	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think		the person						nom thought «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Nothing whatsoever about the person concerned

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	1 Nothing	advmod
3	about	about	ADP	_	5 person	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 person	det
5	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Nothing	nmod
6	concerned	concerned	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 person	amod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/60-reasoning-about-people/e4/