Exam question 1 · Told you a hundred times: how other languages exaggerate a…

Identify the meaning of the Mandarin expression «lèi sǐ le», uttered by a person who has returned from work.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, person · What happens: identify, utter, return, mean · To what, where: meaning, sǐ le, work, Mandarin expression

This is exam question 1 of lesson 53 «Told you a hundred times: how other languages exaggerate and play down» of the language course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 expression	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 expression	det
6	Mandarin	Mandarin	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 expression	compound
7	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
8	«	«	PUNCT	_	11 le	punct
9	lèi	lèi	X	Foreign=Yes	11 le	dep
10	sǐ	sǐ	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 le	amod
11	le	le	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 expression	nmod
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 le	punct
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 uttered	punct
14	uttered	utter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 le	acl
15	by	by	ADP	_	17 person	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 person	det
17	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 uttered	obl
18	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	20 returned	nsubj
19	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 returned	aux
20	returned	return	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	17 person	acl:relcl
21	from	from	ADP	_	22 work	case
22	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 returned	obl
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the Mandarin expression sǐ le			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	utter speech: other	participle		sǐ le not said here		by a person	vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
3	return	present · perfect	a person		work		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from work=Initial_Location
4	mean			the Mandarin expression sǐ le			nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

That the speaker is unwell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 speaker	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 speaker	det
3	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 unwell	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 unwell	cop
5	unwell	unwell	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

That the speaker is exceedingly tired

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 speaker	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 speaker	det
3	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tired	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 tired	cop
5	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	_	6 tired	advmod
6	tired	tired	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

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

Option 3

That a death has occurred

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 death	det
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 death	det
3	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 occurred	nsubj:pass
4	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 occurred	aux
5	occurred	occur	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	present · perfect · passive		that death					tree rules

Option 4

That the speaker is angry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 speaker	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 speaker	det
3	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 angry	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 angry	cop
5	angry	angry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that speaker					angry 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/53-told-you-a-hundred-times-how-other-languages-exaggerate-and-play-down/e1/