Test 2 · Told you a hundred times: how other languages exaggerate a…

Your friend hears Mei's aunt say «lèi sǐ le» and gasps «who died??». What do you tell her?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: friend, aunt, you · What happens: hear, say, gasp, die, tell · To what, where: sǐ le, aunt · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 of lesson 53 «Told you a hundred times: how other languages exaggerate and play down» 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 friend hears Mei's aunt say «lèi sǐ le» and gasps «who died??».

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 friend	nmod:poss
2	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hears	nsubj
3	hears	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	Mei	Mei	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 aunt	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Mei	case
6	aunt	aunt	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 say	nsubj
7	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 hears	ccomp
8	«	«	PUNCT	_	9 lèi	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 say	obj
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	7 say	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 gasps	cc
14	gasps	gasp	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 hears	conj
15	«	«	PUNCT	_	17 died	punct
16	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 died	nsubj
17	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 gasps	ccomp
18	??	??	PUNCT	_	17 died	punct
19	»	»	PUNCT	_	17 died	punct
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 hears	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	hear	present	Your friend		vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	say speech: assert	present	Mei's aunt	sǐ le	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent le=Topic
3	gasp	present	Your friend not said here		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	die in a quote	past			vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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 do you tell her?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 tell	obj
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 tell	aux
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 tell	nsubj
4	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 tell	iobj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 tell	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	present · do-support	you		aunt				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient what=Topic

The options

Option 1

It is a sad song in Chinese

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 song	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 song	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 song	det
4	sad	sad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 song	amod
5	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 Chinese	case
7	Chinese	Chinese	PROPN	_	5 song	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a sad song		Chinese			tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Her aunt's old friend from work has sadly died this week

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 aunt	nmod:poss
2	aunt	aunt	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 friend	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 aunt	case
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 friend	amod
5	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 died	nsubj
6	from	from	ADP	_	7 work	case
7	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 friend	nmod
8	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 died	aux
9	sadly	sadly	ADV	_	10 died	advmod
10	died	die	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
11	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	12 week	det
12	week	week	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 died	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	present · perfect	Her aunt's old friend from work				week	sadly property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Nobody; it means she's very tired, like «dead tired»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 means	nsubj
2	;	;	PUNCT	_	4 means	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 tired	nsubj
6	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 tired	cop
7	very	very	ADV	_	8 tired	advmod
8	tired	tired	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 means	ccomp
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 tired	punct
10	like	like	ADP	_	13 tired	case
11	«	«	PUNCT	_	13 tired	punct
12	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 tired	amod
13	tired	tired	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 means	ccomp
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 tired	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Nobody						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	she					tired property	tree rules

Option 4

Her aunt is going to bed for ever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 aunt	nmod:poss
2	aunt	aunt	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 going	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 going	aux
4	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 bed	mark
6	bed	bed	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 going	xcomp
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 ever	case
8	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 going	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present · progressive	Her aunt	bed					vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for ever=Beneficiary

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/t2/