Exam question 1 · Check the claim, not the person

Identify the fallacy committed where a claim is rejected by reason of the age of the person advancing it.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, reason, person · What happens: identify, commit, reject, advance · To what, where: fallacy, claim

This is exam question 1 of lesson 188 «Check the claim, not the person» 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	1 Identify	obj
4	committed	commit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 fallacy	acl
5	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	9 rejected	advmod
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 claim	det
7	claim	claim	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 rejected	nsubj:pass
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 rejected	aux:pass
9	rejected	reject	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 committed	advcl
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 reason	case
11	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 rejected	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 age	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 age	det
14	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 reason	nmod
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 person	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 person	det
17	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 age	nmod
18	advancing	advance	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	17 person	acl
19	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 advancing	obj
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the fallacy	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent fallacy=Theme
2	commit	participle		the fallacy not said here	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	reject	present · passive	reason of the age of the person	a claim	vn reject-77.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
4	advance	gerund	the person not said here	claim	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer it=Patient

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 · ✓ the right answer

Attacking the person rather than the claim

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Attacking	attack	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Attacking	obj
4	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	7 claim	cc
5	than	than	ADP	_	4 rather	fixed
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 claim	det
7	claim	claim	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Attacking	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attack	gerund		the person					vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Patient

Option 2

An appeal to tradition, since the old know best

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	9 know	nsubj
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 tradition	case
4	tradition	tradition	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 appeal	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 know	punct
6	since	since	SCONJ	_	9 know	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 old	det
8	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 know	nsubj
9	know	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	9 know	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	present	a appeal to tradition	best					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer good=Stimulus

Option 3

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 4

The fence-post error

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 error	det
2	fence	fence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 post	compound
3	-	-	PUNCT	_	2 fence	punct
4	post	post	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 error	compound
5	error	error	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/188-check-the-claim-not-the-person/e1/