Exam question 1 · Mandarin compared with English

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises Mandarin as a tonal language?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: Mandarin

This is exam question 1 of lesson 34 «Mandarin compared with English» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	Mandarin	Mandarin	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
10	as	as	ADP	_	13 language	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 language	det
12	tonal	tonal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 language	amod
13	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		Mandarin				of the following statements; as a tonal language; accurately property	tree rules

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

Tones are employed solely in song

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tones	tone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 employed	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 employed	aux:pass
3	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 employed	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 song	case
6	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 employed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	present · passive		Tones		song		solely property	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

Tones are a regional accent of no grammatical consequence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tones	tone	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 accent	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 accent	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 accent	det
4	regional	regional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 accent	amod
5	accent	accent	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 consequence	case
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 consequence	det
8	grammatical	grammatical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 consequence	amod
9	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 accent	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Tones	a regional accent				of no grammatical consequence	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The pitch pattern of a syllable distinguishes one word from another

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 pattern	det
2	pitch	pitch	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pattern	compound
3	pattern	pattern	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 distinguishes	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 syllable	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 syllable	det
6	syllable	syllable	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pattern	nmod
7	distinguishes	distinguish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 word	nummod
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 distinguishes	obj
10	from	from	ADP	_	11 another	case
11	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	9 word	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	distinguish	present	the pitch pattern of a syllable	one word				from another	vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent word=Theme from another=Co-Theme
2	pattern		a syllable						nom pattern «cognition intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

The pitch of the voice conveys only the emotion of the speaker and never alters meaning

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pitch	det
2	pitch	pitch	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveys	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 voice	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 voice	det
5	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pitch	nmod
6	conveys	convey	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	only	only	ADV	_	9 emotion	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 emotion	det
9	emotion	emotion	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveys	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 speaker	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 speaker	det
12	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 emotion	nmod
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 alters	cc
14	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	15 alters	advmod
15	alters	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 conveys	conj
16	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 alters	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	convey	present	the pitch of the voice	the emotion of the speaker	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent emotion=Topic
2	not alter	present	the pitch of the voice not said here	meaning	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient
3	emote			the speaker	nom emotion «feeling transitive»: of=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/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/e1/