Exam question 1 · The politician's either-or and the straw man

Identify the fallacy committed where a speaker asserts that only two courses of action exist, one of which is catastrophic, notwithstanding the existence of further alternatives.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, fallacy, two courses, further alternatives · What happens: identify, commit, assert, exist, be, notwithstand · To what, where: one, existence

This is exam question 1 of lesson 178 «The politician's either-or and the straw man» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 fallacy	det
3	fallacy	fallacy	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 asserts	nsubj
4	committed	commit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 asserts	advcl
5	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	8 asserts	advmod
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 speaker	det
7	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 asserts	nsubj
8	asserts	assert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	acl:relcl
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 exist	mark
10	only	only	ADV	_	11 two	advmod
11	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 courses	nummod
12	courses	course	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 exist	nsubj
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 action	case
14	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 courses	nmod
15	exist	exist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 asserts	conj
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 one	punct
17	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	15 exist	obj
18	of	of	ADP	_	19 which	case
19	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	21 catastrophic	obl
20	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 catastrophic	cop
21	catastrophic	catastrophic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 one	acl:relcl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 notwithstanding	punct
23	notwithstanding	notwithstand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 exist	advcl
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 existence	det
25	existence	existence	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 notwithstanding	obj
26	of	of	ADP	_	28 alternatives	case
27	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 alternatives	amod
28	alternatives	alternative	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 existence	nmod
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn empathize-88.2 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	commit	participle	the fallacy not said here			vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	assert	present	the fallacy			vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	exist	present	two courses of action	one		tree rules
5	is	present			catastrophic property	tree rules
6	notwithstand	gerund	two courses of action not said here	the existence of further alternatives		tree rules
7	exist		further alternatives			nom existence «state intransitive»: of=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 red herring

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A false dilemma

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

Option 3

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 4

A straw man

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 man	det
2	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 man	compound
3	man	man	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.

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