---
title: What would happen if you called your mum mà instead of māma? — The four tones: same sound, different… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if you called your mum mà instead of māma? Test 5 · ★★ of lesson 2 «The four tones: same sound, different meaning» of the Chinese street course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/t5/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/) / [The four tones: same sound, different…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/) / t5

# Test 5 · ★★ · The four tones: same sound, different meaning

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if you called your mum mà instead of māma?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** you · **What happens:** happen, call · **To what, where:** mum mà · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 · ★★ of lesson 2 «The four tones: same sound, different meaning» of the Chinese street 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:2-the-four-tones:t5:1
# text = What would happen if you called your mum mà instead of māma?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
7	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mum	mum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	mà	mà	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	12	case	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	fixed	_	_
12	māma	māma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **call** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | you | your mum mà |  |  |  | instead māma | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent mà=Recipient |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would mean grandma

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:2-the-four-tones:t5:o1:1
# text = It would mean grandma
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	grandma	grandma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | would | It | grandma |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandma=Topic |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, all four tones of ma mean mum

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:2-the-four-tones:t5:o2:1
# text = Nothing, all four tones of ma mean mum
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	det	_	_
4	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	tones	tone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ma	ma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	mum	mum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present | Nothing | mum |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mum=Topic |
| 2 | **intonate** |  |  | ma |  |  |  |  | nom tone «communication transitive»: of=patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would sound extra polite

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:2-the-four-tones:t5:o3:1
# text = It would sound extra polite
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	sound	sound	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	extra	extra	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	polite	polite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sound** | would | It |  |  |  |  | extra, polite *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would sound like «scold», not «mum»

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:2-the-four-tones:t5:o4:1
# text = It would sound like «scold», not «mum»
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	sound	sound	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	scold	scold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	mum	mum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sound** | would | It | mum |  |  |  | like scold | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [The four tones: same sound, different…, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/t4/)
- next →: [The four tones: same sound, different…, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/t6/)
- ↑ back to [The four tones: same sound, different meaning](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/)