Exam question 2 · How to argue: counter-arguments and respect

Identify the principal reason for which a personal attack fails as a rebuttal.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, personal attack · What happens: identify, fail · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 40 «How to argue: counter-arguments and respect» of the religion ethics 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 fails	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 attack	det
8	personal	personal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 attack	amod
9	attack	attack	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fails	nsubj
10	fails	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
11	as	as	ADP	_	13 rebuttal	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 rebuttal	det
13	rebuttal	rebuttal	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fails	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	fail	present	a personal attack					for the principal reason; as a rebuttal	vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

It is permitted solely in the final round of competition

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	3 permitted	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 permitted	aux:pass
3	permitted	permit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 permitted	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 round	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 round	det
7	final	final	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 round	amod
8	round	round	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 permitted	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 competition	case
10	competition	competition	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 round	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	permit	present · passive		It		the final round of competition		solely property	vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme in round=Location

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It addresses the person rather than the reasons advanced

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 addresses	nsubj
2	addresses	address	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 person	det
4	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 addresses	obj
5	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	8 reasons	cc
6	than	than	ADP	_	5 rather	fixed
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 reasons	det
8	reasons	reason	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 person	conj
9	advanced	advanced	PUNCT	_	2 addresses	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	address	present	It		the person rather the reasons				vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Destination

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It addresses the reasons rather than the person concerned

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 addresses	nsubj
2	addresses	address	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reasons	det
4	reasons	reason	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 addresses	obj
5	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	8 person	cc
6	than	than	ADP	_	5 rather	fixed
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 person	det
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reasons	nmod
9	concerned	concerned	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 person	amod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	address	present	It	the reasons the person					vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Destination

Option 4

It is invariably delivered at insufficient volume

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	4 delivered	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 delivered	aux:pass
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 delivered	advmod
4	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 volume	case
6	insufficient	insufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 volume	amod
7	volume	volume	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 delivered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	present · passive		It		insufficient volume		invariably property	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

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/religion-ethics/40-how-to-argue-counter-arguments-and-respect/e2/