Test 9 · Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole

«Mum said there's a mountain in my room, I said it's only knee-high actually and she got madder lol why»

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Mum, mountain · What happens: say, be, get · To what, where: room · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 of lesson 44 «Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole» 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct
2	Mum	mum	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 said	nsubj
3	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	5 's	expl
5	's	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 said	ccomp
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 mountain	det
7	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 's	nsubj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 room	case
9	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 room	nmod:poss
10	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 's	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 said	punct
12	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	13 said	nsubj
13	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 said	conj
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 high	nsubj
15	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 high	cop
16	only	only	ADV	_	19 high	advmod
17	knee	knee	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 high	nsubj
18	-	-	PUNCT	_	19 high	punct
19	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 said	ccomp
20	actually	actually	ADV	_	19 high	advmod
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 got	cc
22	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 got	nsubj
23	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 said	conj
24	madder	mad	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	23 got	xcomp
25	lol	lol	INTJ	_	23 got	discourse
26	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	23 got	advmod
27	»	»	PUNCT	_	23 got	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	past	Mum			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	be in a quote	present	a mountain	my room; there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in room=Location
3	say speech: assert in a quote	past	Mum			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	is in a quote	present	mountain		actually, high property	tree rules
5	get in a quote	past	Mum		mad property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

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

Ruby measured the wrong pile of clothes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ruby	Ruby	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 measured	nsubj
2	measured	measure	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 pile	det
4	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 pile	amod
5	pile	pile	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 measured	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 clothes	case
7	clothes	clothes	NOUN	Number=Ptan	5 pile	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	measure	past	Ruby	the wrong pile of clothes					vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme pile=Value

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

She meant «tidy it», so arguing about the size missed the point

The tree, 12 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	2 meant	nsubj
2	meant	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 tidy	punct
4	tidy	tidy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 meant	xcomp
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 tidy	obj
6	»	»	PUNCT	_	4 tidy	punct
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 arguing	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	9 arguing	advmod
9	arguing	argue	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 meant	advcl
10	about	about	SCONJ	_	13 missed	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 size	det
12	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 missed	nsubj
13	missed	miss	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 arguing	advcl
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 point	det
15	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 missed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	past	She		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	tidy not said to happen, in a quote	infinitive	She not said here	it	tree rules
3	argue speech: disagree	gerund	She not said here		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	miss	past	the size	the point	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer point=Stimulus

Option 3

Knee-high is taller than most mountains, so she was right

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Knee	knee	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 high	compound
2	-	-	PUNCT	_	1 Knee	punct
3	high	high	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 taller	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 taller	cop
5	taller	tall	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	than	than	ADP	_	8 mountains	case
7	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	8 mountains	amod
8	mountains	mountain	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 taller	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 right	punct
10	so	so	ADV	_	13 right	advmod
11	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 right	nsubj
12	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 right	cop
13	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 taller	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Knee high					than most mountains; tall property	tree rules
2	is	past	she					right property	tree rules

Option 4

She really believed there was a mountain in the room

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 believed	nsubj
2	really	really	ADV	_	3 believed	advmod
3	believed	believe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	5 was	expl
5	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 believed	ccomp
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 mountain	det
7	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 believed	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 room	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 room	det
10	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 believed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	believe	past	She	a mountain		the room			tree rules
2	be	past				there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/44-starving-a-million-times-and-a-ton-everyday-hyperbole/t9/