Mova0.5 pre-release⌕

☰

home / corpora / questions / Language / Mandarin compared with English / t4

Test 4 · ★ · Mandarin compared with English

A cartoon shows a kid learning "the Chinese alphabet A to Z". What's wrong?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cartoon, kid · What happens: show, learn, be · To what, where: kid, Chinese alphabet

This is test 4 · ★ 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

Sentence 1: A cartoon shows a kid learning "the Chinese alphabet A to Z".

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 cartoon	det
2	cartoon	cartoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shows	nsubj
3	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 kid	det
5	kid	kid	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shows	obj
6	learning	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 kid	acl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 alphabet	punct
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 alphabet	det
9	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 alphabet	amod
10	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 learning	obj
11	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 alphabet	det
12	to	to	ADP	_	13 Z	case
13	Z	z	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 alphabet	nmod
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 alphabet	punct
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 shows	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	a cartoon		a kid				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent kid=Recipient
2	learn	gerund	a kid not said here	the Chinese alphabet				to Z	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent alphabet=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.

Sentence 2: What's wrong?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 wrong	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 wrong	cop
3	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 wrong	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						wrong property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Chinese has only 4 letters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Chinese	Chinese	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 4	advmod
4	4	4	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 letters	nummod
5	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 has	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Chinese	4 letters					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Patient

Option 2

It should be Z to A

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	4 Z	nsubj
2	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 Z	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 Z	cop
4	Z	z	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 A	case
6	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 Z	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	should	It	Z				to A	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Chinese uses characters, not an A to Z alphabet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 uses	amod
2	uses	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	characters	character	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 uses	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 A	punct
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 A	advmod
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 A	det
7	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 alphabet	det
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 Z	case
9	Z	z	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 alphabet	compound
10	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 uses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present		characters					tree rules

Option 4

Nothing, Chinese has 26 letters, the same as English

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 has	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	Chinese	Chinese	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 has	nsubj
4	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	26	26	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	6 letters	nummod
6	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 has	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 same	punct
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 same	det
9	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 letters	appos
10	as	as	ADP	_	11 English	case
11	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 same	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Nothing	26 letters					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=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/t4/