Exam question 4 · Sarcasm and tone of voice
Determine the meaning of the reply "Yeah, sure, and a pony too" to a request for a sweet.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: determine, mean · To what, where: meaning, reply
This is exam question 4 of lesson 29 «Sarcasm and tone of voice» 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 | Determine | determine | 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 Determine | obj |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 reply | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 reply | det |
| 6 | reply | reply | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 meaning | nmod |
| 7 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 sure | punct |
| 8 | Yeah | yeah | INTJ | _ | 10 sure | discourse |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 sure | punct |
| 10 | sure | sure | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 reply | parataxis |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 pony | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 pony | cc |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 pony | det |
| 14 | pony | pony | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 sure | parataxis |
| 15 | too | too | ADV | _ | 14 pony | advmod |
| 16 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 14 pony | punct |
| 17 | to | to | ADP | _ | 19 request | case |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 19 request | det |
| 19 | request | request | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 pony | nmod |
| 20 | for | for | ADP | _ | 22 sweet | case |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 22 sweet | det |
| 22 | sweet | sweet | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 request | nmod |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Determine | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | determine | imperative | you not said here | the meaning of the reply | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic | ||||
| 2 | mean | the reply | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient |
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
A promise of two gifts
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 promise | det |
| 2 | promise | promise | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 gifts | case |
| 4 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 5 gifts | nummod |
| 5 | gifts | gift | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 promise | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | promise | two gifts | nom promise «communication transitive»: of=patient |
Option 2
A request for clarification
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 request | det |
| 2 | request | request | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | for | for | ADP | _ | 4 clarification | case |
| 4 | clarification | clarification | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 request | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
An unconditional consent
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 consent | det |
| 2 | unconditional | unconditional | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 consent | amod |
| 3 | consent | consent | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
A refusal
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 refusal | det |
| 2 | refusal | refusal | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
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/language/29-sarcasm-and-tone-of-voice/e4/