Test 3 · Formal and informal: a mate versus the head teacher

What would happen if you wrote a job letter full of text speak like "u" and "thx"?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: happen, write · To what, where: job letter

This is test 3 of lesson 16 «Formal and informal: a mate versus the head teacher» of the language course of Mova's primary school. 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 wrote	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 wrote	nsubj
6	wrote	write	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 letter	det
8	job	job	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 letter	compound
9	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wrote	obj
10	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 letter	amod
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 speak	case
12	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 speak	compound
13	speak	speak	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 full	obl
14	like	like	ADP	_	16 u	case
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 u	punct
16	u	u	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 speak	nmod
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 u	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 thx	cc
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	20 thx	punct
20	thx	thanks	NOUN	Abbr=Yes Number=Sing	16 u	conj
21	"	"	PUNCT	_	20 thx	punct
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	write a condition, not said to happen	past	you	a job letter					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme

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 · ✓ the right answer

It might look careless, so they may not take you seriously

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 look	nsubj
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 look	aux
3	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	careless	careless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 look	xcomp
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 take	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	10 take	advmod
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 take	nsubj
8	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 take	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 take	advmod
10	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 look	conj
11	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	10 take	obj
12	seriously	seriously	ADV	_	10 take	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	might	It					careless property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
2	not take	may	they		you			seriously property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument you=Destination

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The letter would be sent back because computers can't read it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 letter	det
2	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sent	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 sent	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 sent	aux:pass
5	sent	send	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	back	back	ADV	_	5 sent	advmod
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 read	mark
8	computers	computer	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 read	nsubj
9	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 read	aux
10	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 read	advmod
11	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 sent	advcl
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 read	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send back	would · passive		the letter					vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	not read	can	computers	letter					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic

Option 3

Nothing at all, every company prefers text speak these days

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 all	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Nothing	nmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 prefers	punct
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 company	det
6	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 prefers	nsubj
7	prefers	prefer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	parataxis
8	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 prefers	obj
9	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 prefers	xcomp
10	these	this	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	11 days	det
11	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 speak	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prefer	present	every company	text					tree rules
2	speak speech: other not said to happen	infinitive	every company not said here				day		vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

They would offer you the job straight away for being modern

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 offer	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 offer	aux
3	offer	offer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 offer	obj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 job	det
6	job	job	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 offer	obj
7	straight	straight	ADV	_	8 away	advmod
8	away	away	ADV	_	3 offer	advmod
9	for	for	ADP	_	11 modern	case
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 modern	cop
11	modern	modern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 offer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	would	They	the job	you			away property	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent you=Goal job=Theme
2	is	gerund						modern property	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/language/16-formal-and-informal-a-mate-versus-the-head-teacher/t3/