Test 7 · ★ · Mandarin compared with English

Your mate thinks "all Chinese people speak the same language." What's true?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, Chinese people · What happens: think, speak, be · To what, where: same language · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 7 · ★ 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: Your mate thinks "all Chinese people speak the same language."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 thinks	nsubj
3	thinks	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 speak	punct
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 people	det
6	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 people	amod
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 speak	nsubj
8	speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 thinks	ccomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 language	det
10	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 language	amod
11	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 speak	obj
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 thinks	punct
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 thinks	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	present	Your mate						vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	speak speech: other in a quote	present	all Chinese people	the same language					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.

Sentence 2: What's true?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

The options

Option 1

He's right, there's only one language in China, spoken the same way everywhere

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 's	punct
5	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	6 's	expl
6	's	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	parataxis
7	only	only	ADV	_	8 one	advmod
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 language	nummod
9	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 's	nsubj
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 China	case
11	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 's	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 spoken	punct
13	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 right	parataxis
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 way	det
15	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 way	amod
16	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 spoken	obj
17	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	PronType=Tot	13 spoken	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	He			right property	tree rules
2	be	present	one language		China; there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in china=Location
3	speak speech: other	participle		the same way		everywhere property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

China has many languages; Mandarin is the most widely spoken

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 languages	amod
4	languages	language	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 has	obj
5	;	;	PUNCT	_	11 spoken	punct
6	Mandarin	Mandarin	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 spoken	nsubj:pass
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 spoken	aux:pass
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 most	det
9	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	10 widely	advmod
10	widely	widely	ADV	_	11 spoken	advmod
11	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 has	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	China	many languages					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent language=Patient
2	speak speech: other	present · passive		Mandarin				widely property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Everyone in China speaks English

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	4 speaks	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 China	case
3	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Everyone	nmod
4	speaks	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 speaks	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	present	Everyone	English					tree rules

Option 4

Cantonese is the same as Mandarin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cantonese	cantonese	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 same	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 same	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 same	det
4	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	as	as	ADP	_	6 Mandarin	case
6	Mandarin	Mandarin	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 same	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Cantonese					as Mandarin; same property	tree rules

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.

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