Test 3 · Vows, oaths and promises in faith

Hannah's friend says, "Quakers don't swear oaths, so they can lie in court." What is wrong?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: friend, Quakers · What happens: say, not swear, lie, be · To what, where: oaths, court · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 of lesson 88 «Vows, oaths and promises in faith» of the religion ethics 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: Hannah's friend says, "Quakers don't swear oaths, so they can lie in court."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hannah	Hannah	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 friend	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Hannah	case
3	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 swear	punct
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 swear	punct
7	Quakers	quaker	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 swear	nsubj
8	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 swear	aux
9	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 swear	advmod
10	swear	swear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 says	ccomp
11	oaths	oath	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 swear	obj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 lie	punct
13	so	so	ADV	_	16 lie	advmod
14	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 lie	nsubj
15	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 lie	aux
16	lie	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 says	ccomp
17	in	in	ADP	_	18 court	case
18	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 lie	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	16 lie	punct
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 lie	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Hannah's friend			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	not swear in a quote	present · do-support	Quakers	oaths		vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent oath=Eventuality
3	lie in a quote	can	Quakers = quaker		court	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in court=Location

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 · ✓ the right answer

They make a solemn promise instead, and lying is still perjury

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 make	nsubj
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 promise	det
4	solemn	solemn	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 promise	amod
5	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 make	obj
6	instead	instead	ADV	_	2 make	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 perjury	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 perjury	cc
9	lying	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 perjury	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 perjury	cop
11	still	still	ADV	_	12 perjury	advmod
12	perjury	perjury	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 make	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	They	a solemn promise		instead property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset promise=Product
2	lie	gerund					vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is a	present		perjury	still		tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Only Quakers are allowed to lie in court

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	2 Quakers	advmod
2	Quakers	Quaker	PROPN	Number=Plur	4 allowed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 allowed	aux:pass
4	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 lie	mark
6	lie	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 allowed	xcomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 court	case
8	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lie	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	allow	present · passive		Quakers					vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
2	lie not said to happen	to-infinitive	Quakers not said here			court			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in court=Location

Option 3

Quakers don't go to court, so it doesn't matter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Quakers	quaker	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 go	nsubj
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 go	aux
3	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 go	advmod
4	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 court	case
6	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 go	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 matter	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	12 matter	advmod
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 matter	nsubj
10	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 matter	aux
11	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 matter	advmod
12	matter	matter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 go	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not go	present · do-support	Quakers			court			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to court=Initial_Location
2	not matter	present · do-support	it						vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 4

Nothing; Quakers can say anything they like in court because they never swore

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	;	;	PUNCT	_	5 say	punct
3	Quakers	Quaker	PROPN	Number=Plur	5 say	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 say	aux
5	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Nothing	acl:relcl
6	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	5 say	obj
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 like	nsubj
8	like	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 anything	acl:relcl
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 court	case
10	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 like	obl
11	because	because	SCONJ	_	14 swore	mark
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 swore	nsubj
13	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	14 swore	advmod
14	swore	swear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 say	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	say speech: assert	can	Quakers	anything		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic
2	like	present	Quakers = quaker		court	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
3	not swear	past	Quakers = quaker			vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

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/88-vows-oaths-and-promises-in-faith/t3/