---
title: Myth to check: «Talking about death makes it more likely to happen.» — Bedtime fears: «Will you die, Mum?» an… · tree and pragmatics
description: Myth to check: «Talking about death makes it more likely to happen.» Test 11 of lesson 70 «Bedtime fears: «Will you die, Mum?» and «Will I die?»» of the religion ethics course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wron
---

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# Test 11 · Bedtime fears: «Will you die, Mum?» and «Will I die?»

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Myth to check: «Talking about death makes it more likely to happen.»

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Myth, Talking · **What happens:** check, talk, make, happen · **To what, where:** Myth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 of lesson 70 «Bedtime fears: «Will you die, Mum?» and «Will I die?»» of the religion ethics 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/religion-ethics/70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die:t11:1
# text = Myth to check: «Talking about death makes it more likely to happen.»
1	Myth	myth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	to	to	PART	TO	_	3	mark	_	_
3	check	check	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	csubj	_	_
7	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	_
12	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **check** | to-infinitive | Myth |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **talk** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | about death | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about death=Topic |
| 3 | **make** *in a quote* | present | Talking | Myth |  |  |  | likely *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |
| 4 | **happen** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Myth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
True; you should never say the word «death» out loud

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die:t11:o1:1
# text = True; you should never say the word «death» out loud
1	True	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	parataxis	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
12	out	out	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	loud	loud	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | should | you | the word |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
False; talking can make the fear smaller

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die:t11:o2:1
# text = False; talking can make the fear smaller
1	False	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	csubj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **make** | can | talking | the fear |  |  |  | small *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset fear=Product |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
True, but only if you talk about it at bedtime

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die:t11:o3:1
# text = True, but only if you talk about it at bedtime
1	True	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	talk	talk	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	bedtime	bedtime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | present | you | True |  | bedtime |  | about it | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about it=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
False, but only for grown-ups, not for children

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die:t11:o4:1
# text = False, but only for grown-ups, not for children
1	False	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
3	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	ups	up	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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: [Bedtime fears: «Will you die, Mum?» an…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die/t10/)
- next →: [Bedtime fears: «Will you die, Mum?» an…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die/e1/)
- ↑ back to [Bedtime fears: «Will you die, Mum?» and «Will I die?»](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/70-bedtime-fears-will-you-die-mum-and-will-i-die/)