Test 4 · ★ · A bit nippy and not ideal: British understatement

«Dad said there's a slight problem downstairs, so I'll finish my game first» You can hear water splashing. What is wrong?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Dad, slight problem, You, water · What happens: say, be, finish, hear, splash · To what, where: game, water · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 49 «A bit nippy and not ideal: British understatement» 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: «Dad said there's a slight problem downstairs, so I'll finish my game first» You can hear water splashing.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct
2	Dad	dad	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	8 problem	det
7	slight	slight	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 problem	amod
8	problem	problem	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 's	nsubj
9	downstairs	downstairs	ADV	_	5 's	advmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 finish	punct
11	so	so	ADV	_	14 finish	advmod
12	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	14 finish	nsubj
13	'll	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 finish	aux
14	finish	finish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 said	ccomp
15	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 game	nmod:poss
16	game	game	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 finish	obj
17	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	14 finish	advmod
18	»	»	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct
19	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	21 hear	nsubj
20	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	21 hear	aux
21	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 said	ccomp
22	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 hear	obj
23	splashing	splash	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	21 hear	xcomp
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	past	Dad				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	be in a quote	present	a slight problem		there	downstairs property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	finish in a quote	future	Dad	my game		first property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector game=Eventuality
4	hear	can	You	water			tree rules
5	splash	gerund	water not said here				vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 is wrong?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 wrong	nsubj
2	is	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

Nothing, «slight» means the problem can wait until after your game

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	6 means	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 slight	punct
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 slight	punct
4	slight	slight	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Nothing	appos
5	»	»	PUNCT	_	4 slight	punct
6	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 problem	det
8	problem	problem	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 wait	nsubj
9	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 wait	aux
10	wait	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 means	ccomp
11	until	until	ADP	_	14 game	case
12	after	after	ADP	_	14 game	case
13	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 game	nmod:poss
14	game	game	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 wait	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Nothing						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	wait	can	the problem				until your game		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Nothing, Dad likes to fix things on his own

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 Dad	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	Dad	dad	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 likes	nsubj
4	likes	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 fix	mark
6	fix	fix	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 likes	xcomp
7	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 fix	obj
8	on	on	ADP	_	10 own	case
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 own	nmod:poss
10	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fix	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	like	present	Nothing Dad						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	fix not said to happen	to-infinitive	Nothing Dad not said here	things		Dad's own			vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent thing=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

«Slight» was playing it down: the splashing shows a big problem

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 Slight	punct
2	Slight	slight	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 shows	advcl
3	»	»	PUNCT	_	2 Slight	punct
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 playing	aux
5	playing	play	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 Slight	advcl
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 playing	obj
7	down	down	ADP	_	5 playing	compound:prt
8	:	:	PUNCT	_	11 shows	punct
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 splashing	det
10	splashing	splashing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 shows	nsubj
11	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 problem	det
13	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 problem	amod
14	problem	problem	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 shows	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	play down	past · progressive	the splashing not said here	it					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
2	show	present	the splashing	a big problem					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent problem=Recipient

Option 4

Splashing water is always a good sign in a kitchen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Splashing	splash	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 sign	csubj
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Splashing	obj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 sign	cop
4	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 sign	advmod
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 sign	det
6	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sign	amod
7	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 kitchen	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 kitchen	det
10	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sign	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	splash	gerund		water					vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location water=Theme
2	is a	present	Splashing	a good sign		a kitchen		always 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/49-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement/t4/