Exam question 3 · "Because I said so" and other dead-end reasons

Which of the following most accurately characterises an argument whereby a conclusion is offered as its own justification?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: conclusion · What happens: follow, characteris, offer, justify · To what, where: argument, conclusion

This is exam question 3 of lesson 163 «"Because I said so" and other dead-end reasons» of the world 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	4 following	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 following	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	7 characterises	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 following	advcl
8	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 argument	det
9	argument	argument	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	whereby	whereby	ADV	PronType=Int	14 offered	advmod
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 conclusion	det
12	conclusion	conclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 offered	nsubj:pass
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 offered	aux:pass
14	offered	offer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 argument	acl:relcl
15	as	as	ADP	_	18 justification	case
16	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 justification	nmod:poss
17	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 justification	amod
18	justification	justification	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 offered	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	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		a argument	accurately property	tree rules
3	offer	present · passive		a conclusion	as conclusion's own justification; whereby property	vn volunteer-95.4 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Pivot as justification=Attribute
4	justify		conclusion			nom justification «cognition transitive»: poss=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 · ← Mova's choice

A controlled experiment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 experiment	det
2	controlled	control	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 experiment	amod
3	experiment	experiment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	control	participle							vn enforce-63 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 2

An appeal to tradition

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 appeal	det
2	appeal	appeal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 tradition	case
4	tradition	tradition	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 appeal	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Circular reasoning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Circular	circular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 reasoning	amod
2	reasoning	reasoning	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

A fair agreement

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 agreement	det
2	fair	fair	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 agreement	amod
3	agreement	agreement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/world/163-because-i-said-so-dead-end-reasons/e3/