Exam question 1 · Viral facts and chain messages

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the efficacy of a message threatening misfortune upon a failure to forward it?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: message · What happens: follow, characteris, threaten, forward · To what, where: efficacy, misfortune

This is exam question 1 of lesson 25 «Viral facts and chain messages» of the myths 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 efficacy	det
10	efficacy	efficacy	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 message	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 message	det
13	message	message	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 efficacy	nmod
14	threatening	threaten	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	13 message	acl
15	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 threatening	obj
16	upon	upon	ADP	_	18 failure	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 failure	det
18	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 threatening	obl
19	to	to	PART	_	20 forward	mark
20	forward	forward	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 threatening	advcl
21	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 forward	obj
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the efficacy of a message	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	threaten	gerund	a message not said here	misfortune	upon a failure	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus misfortune=Experiencer
4	forward	to-infinitive	a message not said here	misfortune		vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Its efficacy is proportional to the number of recipients

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 efficacy	nmod:poss
2	efficacy	efficacy	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 proportional	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 proportional	cop
4	proportional	proportional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 number	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 number	det
7	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 proportional	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 recipients	case
9	recipients	recipient	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 number	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Its efficacy					to the number of recipients; proportional property	tree rules

Option 2

It occasions misfortune solely upon its deletion

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	2 occasions	nsubj
2	occasions	occasion	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occasions	obj
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	2 occasions	advmod
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 deletion	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 deletion	nmod:poss
7	deletion	deletion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occasions	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occasion	present	It	misfortune				upon misfortune's deletion; solely property	tree rules
2	delete		misfortune						nom deletion «process transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It possesses no capacity whatsoever to cause misfortune

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	2 possesses	nsubj
2	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 capacity	det
4	capacity	capacity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possesses	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 possesses	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 cause	mark
7	cause	cause	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 possesses	advcl
8	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cause	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	It	no capacity				whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot capacity=Theme
2	cause	to-infinitive		misfortune					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition misfortune=Patient

Option 4

It occasions misfortune unless forwarded to ten recipients

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	2 occasions	nsubj
2	occasions	occasion	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occasions	obj
4	unless	unless	SCONJ	_	5 forwarded	mark
5	forwarded	forward	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 occasions	advcl
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 recipients	case
7	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 recipients	nummod
8	recipients	recipient	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 forwarded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occasion	present	It	misfortune					tree rules
2	forward a condition, not said to happen	participle				ten recipients			vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to recipient=Destination

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/myths/25-viral-facts-and-chain-messages/e1/