Exam question 2 · Is there one proper English? The big arguments

Identify the meaning ordinarily conveyed by the utterance "I don't want no dinner".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, I · What happens: identify, convey, not want · To what, where: meaning, dinner · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 20 «Is there one proper English? The big arguments» of the language 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 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	ordinarily	ordinarily	ADV	_	5 conveyed	advmod
5	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 meaning	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 utterance	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 utterance	det
8	utterance	utterance	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conveyed	obl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 want	punct
10	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	13 want	nsubj
11	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 want	aux
12	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	13 want	advmod
13	want	want	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 conveyed	ccomp
14	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	15 dinner	det
15	dinner	dinner	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 want	obj
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 want	punct
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the meaning		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	convey	participle		the meaning not said here	by the utterance; ordinarily property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	not want in a quote	present · do-support	I	no dinner		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot dinner=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The speaker does not wish to have dinner

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 wish	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 wish	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 wish	advmod
5	wish	wish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 have	mark
7	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 wish	xcomp
8	dinner	dinner	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not wish	present · do-support	the speaker						vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	have not said to happen	to-infinitive	the speaker not said here	dinner					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Patient

Option 2

The speaker wishes to have dinner

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wishes	nsubj
3	wishes	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 have	mark
5	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 wishes	ccomp
6	dinner	dinner	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wish	present	the speaker						vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	have not said to happen	to-infinitive		dinner					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Patient

Option 3

The utterance conveys no meaning whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 utterance	det
2	utterance	utterance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conveys	nsubj
3	conveys	convey	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 meaning	det
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conveys	obj
6	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 conveys	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	convey	present	the utterance	no meaning				whatsoever property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic

Option 4

The speaker wishes to have two dinners

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wishes	nsubj
3	wishes	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 have	mark
5	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 wishes	ccomp
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 dinners	nummod
7	dinners	dinner	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wish	present	the speaker						vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	have not said to happen	to-infinitive		two dinners					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Patient

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/20-is-there-one-proper-english/e2/