Test 9 · ★ · Mandarin compared with English

Your sis says "English has nothing like measure words, they're weird." What's fair?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sis, English, words · What happens: say, have, be · To what, where: nothing · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 · ★ 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 sis says "English has nothing like measure words, they're weird."

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 sis	nmod:poss
2	sis	sis	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 has	punct
5	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 has	nsubj
6	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 says	ccomp
7	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	6 has	obj
8	like	like	ADP	_	10 words	case
9	measure	measure	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 words	compound
10	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 nothing	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 weird	punct
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 weird	nsubj
13	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 weird	cop
14	weird	weird	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 says	ccomp
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	14 weird	punct
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 weird	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Your sis			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	have in a quote	present	English	nothing	like measure words	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient
3	is in a quote	present	words = word		weird 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.

Sentence 2: What's fair?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

The options

Option 1

She's right, English has nothing at all like them, they're only Chinese

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem 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 has	punct
5	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 has	nsubj
6	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	csubj
7	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	6 has	obj
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 all	case
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 nothing	nmod
10	like	like	ADP	_	11 them	case
11	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 all	nmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 Chinese	punct
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 Chinese	nsubj
14	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 Chinese	cop
15	only	only	ADV	_	16 Chinese	advmod
16	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 right	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	She			right property	tree rules
2	have	present	English	nothing	all		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient
3	is	present	they			chinese property	tree rules

Option 2

English uses tones instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 uses	nsubj
2	uses	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	tones	tone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 uses	obj
4	instead	instead	ADV	_	2 uses	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present	English	tones				instead property	vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tone=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

English has a measure word for every noun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 word	det
4	measure	measure	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 word	compound
5	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 noun	case
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 noun	det
8	noun	noun	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 word	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	English	a measure word				for every noun	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

English has some, like "a piece of paper" and "a loaf of bread"

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	2 has	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 piece	punct
5	like	like	ADP	_	8 piece	case
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 piece	punct
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 piece	det
8	piece	piece	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 paper	case
10	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 piece	nmod
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 piece	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 loaf	cc
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 loaf	punct
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 loaf	det
15	loaf	loaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	conj
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 bread	case
17	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 loaf	nmod
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 loaf	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	English	some					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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/t9/