Exam question 4 · The whole class punished, and "you didn't say no"

Which of the following most accurately characterises the statement "I shall think about it" when treated as a promise?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: I · What happens: follow, characteris, think, treat · To what, where: statement

This is exam question 4 of lesson 168 «The whole class punished, and "you didn't say no"» 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	7 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 characterises	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 characterises	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 characterises	csubj
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	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 statement	det
9	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 think	punct
11	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	13 think	nsubj
12	shall	shall	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 think	aux
13	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 statement	acl
14	about	about	ADP	_	15 it	case
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 think	obl
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 think	punct
17	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	18 treated	advmod
18	treated	treat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 characterises	advcl
19	as	as	ADP	_	21 promise	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 promise	det
21	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 treated	obl
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 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 statement	accurately property	tree rules
3	think speech: other in a quote	shall	I	the statement not said here	about statement	vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot statement=Theme
4	treat	participle			as a promise	vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent as promise=Attribute

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

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 2

A binding and explicit undertaking

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 binding	det
2	binding	binding	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 undertaking	cc
4	explicit	explicit	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 undertaking	compound
5	undertaking	undertaking	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 binding	conj

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

Option 3

A collective punishment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

An equivocation upon the meaning of the words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 equivocation	det
2	equivocation	equivocation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 meaning	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 meaning	det
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 equivocation	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 words	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 words	det
8	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 meaning	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean			the words					nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=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/world/168-the-whole-class-punished-and-you-didnt-say-no/e4/