---
title: What would happen if you said zì instead of zǐ for purple? — Colours · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if you said zì instead of zǐ for purple? Test 8 of lesson 8 «Colours» 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 right.
---

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# Test 8 · Colours

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if you said zì instead of zǐ for purple?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** you · **What happens:** happen, say · **To what, where:** zì · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 of lesson 8 «Colours» 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/8-colours/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:8-colours:t8:1
# text = What would happen if you said zì instead of zǐ for purple?
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	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
7	zì	zì	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	10	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	fixed	_	_
10	zǐ	zǐ	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	purple	purple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	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 | **say** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | past | you | zì |  |  |  | instead zǐ for purple | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent zì=Topic |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, they are the very same word

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:8-colours:t8:o1:1
# text = Nothing, they are the very same word
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | they | the same word |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
You'd say «character, letter» instead

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:8-colours:t8:o2:1
# text = You'd say «character, letter» instead
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | would | You | character and letter |  |  |  | instead *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent character=Topic |

### Option 3 {#o3}

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

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:8-colours:t8:o3:1
# text = It would mean yellow
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	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obj	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would mean pink, a lighter kind of purple

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:8-colours:t8:o4:1
# text = It would mean pink, a lighter kind of purple
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	pink	pink	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	lighter	light	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	amod	_	_
8	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	purple	purple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
```

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

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**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 -->

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- ← previous: [Colours, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/8-colours/t7/)
- next →: [Colours, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/8-colours/t9/)
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