Test 3 · ★★ · Idioms taken literally

What would happen if you translated "hang noodles on ears" word for word into English for a friend?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: happen, translate, hang · To what, where: hang word, English, noodles, ears

This is test 3 · ★★ of lesson 25 «Idioms taken literally» 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 translated	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 translated	nsubj
6	translated	translate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 hang	punct
8	hang	hang	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 word	compound
9	noodles	noodle	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 hang	obj
10	on	on	ADP	_	11 ears	case
11	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 hang	obl
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 hang	punct
13	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 translated	obj
14	for	for	ADP	_	15 word	case
15	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 word	nmod
16	into	into	ADP	_	17 English	case
17	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 translated	obl
18	for	for	ADP	_	20 friend	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 friend	det
20	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 translated	obl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	happen	would					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	translate a condition, not said to happen	past	you	hang word		into English result; for word; for a friend	vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent word=Patient into english=Result
3	hang in a quote	infinitive		noodles	ears		vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent noodle=Theme on ear=Destination

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

It would turn into "pull your leg" all by itself

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 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	aux
3	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 pull	case
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 pull	punct
6	pull	pull	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 turn	conj
7	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 leg	nmod:poss
8	leg	leg	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 pull	obj
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 turn	punct
10	all	all	ADV	_	3 turn	advmod
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 itself	case
12	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	3 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	It					by leg; all property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme by itself=Trajectory
2	pull in a quote	infinitive		your leg					vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

They'd picture real noodles and miss the meaning

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 picture	nsubj
2	'd	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 picture	aux
3	picture	picture	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 noodles	amod
5	noodles	noodle	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 picture	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 miss	cc
7	miss	miss	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 picture	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 meaning	det
9	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 miss	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	picture	would	They	real noodles					vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent noodle=Theme
2	miss	present	They not said here	the meaning					vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer meaning=Stimulus

Option 3

They'd understand it at once

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 understand	nsubj
2	'd	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 understand	aux
3	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 understand	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 once	case
6	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	3 understand	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand	would	They	it					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus

Option 4

It would mean exactly the same in every language

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 mean	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 mean	aux
3	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	6 same	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 same	det
6	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 mean	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 language	case
8	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	9 language	det
9	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 same	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	would	It	the same					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent same=Topic

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/25-idioms-taken-literally/t3/