Test 2 · ★ · Mandarin compared with English

What would happen if you said "mà" (scold) when you meant "mā" (mother)?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: happen, say, mean · To what, where: mà, mā · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 · ★ of lesson 34 «Mandarin compared with English» 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 said	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 said	nsubj
6	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 mà	punct
8	mà	mà	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	obj
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 mà	punct
10	(	(	PUNCT	_	11 scold	punct
11	scold	scold	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 mà	appos
12	)	)	PUNCT	_	11 scold	punct
13	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	15 meant	advmod
14	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	15 meant	nsubj
15	meant	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 said	advcl
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 mā	punct
17	mā	mā	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 meant	obj
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 mā	punct
19	(	(	PUNCT	_	20 mother	punct
20	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 mā	appos
21	)	)	PUNCT	_	20 mother	punct
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	happen	would			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	say speech: assert a condition, not said to happen	past	you	mà	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent mà=Topic
3	mean	past	you	mā	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mā=Topic

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

Nothing, people wouldn't notice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 notice	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 notice	aux
5	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 notice	advmod
6	notice	notice	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Nothing	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not notice	would	people						vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2

It would mean "father"

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	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 father	punct
5	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mean	obj
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 father	punct

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

Option 3

It would mean "horse"

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	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 horse	punct
5	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mean	obj
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 horse	punct

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

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

You'd say a different word

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 say	nsubj
2	'd	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 say	aux
3	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 word	det
5	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 word	amod
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 say	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	You	a different word					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=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/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/t2/