Test 1 · ★★★ · Saying sorry and making amends: Zacchaeus pays back

Your mate says, "Sorry's just a word, so it doesn't matter how you say it." What is the best answer?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: mate, it, you, best answer · What happens: say, be, not matter · To what, where: word, mate · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★★★ of lesson 90 «Saying sorry and making amends: Zacchaeus pays back» 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: Your mate says, "Sorry's just a word, so it doesn't matter how you say it."

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 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 word	punct
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 word	punct
6	Sorry	sorry	INTJ	_	10 word	discourse
7	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 word	cop
8	just	just	ADV	_	10 word	advmod
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 word	det
10	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	ccomp
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 matter	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	16 matter	advmod
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 matter	nsubj
14	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 matter	aux
15	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 matter	advmod
16	matter	matter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 says	ccomp
17	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	19 say	advmod
18	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	19 say	nsubj
19	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 matter	csubj
20	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 say	obj
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	16 matter	punct
22	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 matter	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Your mate		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is a in a quote	present		a word	tree rules
3	not matter in a quote	present · do-support	it		vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
4	say speech: assert in a quote	present	you	mate	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic

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 the best answer?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 answer	det
4	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 answer	amod
5	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the best answer						tree rules

The options

Option 1

He's right; any sorry is as good as any other, however you say it

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	;	;	PUNCT	_	9 good	punct
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 sorry	det
6	sorry	sorry	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 good	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 good	cop
8	as	as	ADV	_	9 good	advmod
9	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 right	conj
10	as	as	ADP	_	11 any	case
11	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 good	obl
12	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 any	fixed
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 say	punct
14	however	however	ADV	_	16 say	advmod
15	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	16 say	nsubj
16	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	parataxis
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 say	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	He		right property	tree rules
2	is	present	any sorry		as any; good property	tree rules
3	say speech: assert	present	you	sorry	however property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic

Option 2

Saying sorry makes you look weak

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 makes	csubj
2	sorry	sorry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Saying	obj
3	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 makes	obj
5	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 makes	xcomp
6	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 look	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	gerund		sorry		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sorry=Topic
2	make	present	Saying	you		tree rules
3	look	infinitive	you not said here		weak property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A real sorry shows you understand the hurt and want to fix it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 sorry	det
2	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 sorry	amod
3	sorry	sorry	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 shows	nsubj
4	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 understand	nsubj
6	understand	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 shows	ccomp
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 hurt	det
8	hurt	hurt	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 understand	obj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 want	cc
10	want	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 understand	conj
11	to	to	PART	_	12 fix	mark
12	fix	fix	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 want	xcomp
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 fix	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	show	present	a real sorry		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	understand	present	you	the hurt	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer hurt=Stimulus
3	want	present	you not said here		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
4	fix not said to happen	to-infinitive	you not said here	hurt	vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 4

Sorry only counts if a teacher hears it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sorry	sorry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 counts	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 counts	advmod
3	counts	count	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 hears	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 teacher	det
6	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hears	nsubj
7	hears	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 counts	advcl
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 hears	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	present	Sorry						vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
2	hear a condition, not said to happen	present	a teacher	it					vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus

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/90-saying-sorry-and-making-amends-zacchaeus-pays-back/t1/