Exam question 2 · Mandarin compared with English

Identify the means by which Mandarin indicates that an action is completed.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the · What happens: identify, mean, indicate, complete · To what, where: action · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	7 indicates	mark
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 indicates	nsubj
6	Mandarin	Mandarin	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 indicates	nsubj
7	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 completed	mark
9	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 action	det
10	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 completed	nsubj:pass
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 completed	aux:pass
12	completed	complete	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 indicates	advcl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	indicate	present			vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot
4	complete	present · passive		a action	vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality

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 suffix "-ed" appended to the verb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 suffix	det
2	suffix	suffix	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 appended	nsubj
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 ed	punct
4	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 ed	punct
5	ed	ed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 suffix	appos
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 ed	punct
7	appended	append	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 verb	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 verb	det
10	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 appended	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	append	past	the suffix					to the verb	tree rules

Option 2

A change in the tone of the noun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 change	det
2	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 tone	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 tone	det
5	tone	tone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 change	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 noun	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 noun	det
8	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tone	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	intonate			the noun					nom tone «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The omission of the verb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 omission	det
2	omission	omission	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 verb	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 verb	det
5	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 omission	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	omit			the verb					nom omission «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Particles such as "了" and words denoting time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Particles	particle	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	5 了	case
3	as	as	ADP	_	2 such	fixed
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 了	punct
5	了	了	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Particles	nmod
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 了	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 words	cc
8	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 了	conj
9	denoting	denote	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 words	acl
10	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 denoting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	gerund	words not said here				time		vn indicate-78 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot

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/e2/