Test 2 · Buildings and architecture

What would happen if you built a tall tower on soft ground with a weak foundation?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: happen, build · To what, where: tall tower, soft ground

This is test 2 of lesson 34 «Buildings and architecture» of the arts 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.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 built	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 built	nsubj
6	built	build	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 tower	det
8	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 tower	amod
9	tower	tower	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 built	obj
10	on	on	ADP	_	12 ground	case
11	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 ground	amod
12	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 built	obl
13	with	with	ADP	_	16 foundation	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 foundation	det
15	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 foundation	amod
16	foundation	foundation	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 ground	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	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	build a condition, not said to happen	past	you	a tall tower		soft ground with a weak foundation			vn base-97.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent tower=Theme on ground=Source

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

It would slowly grow taller over time as the ground pushed it up

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 grow	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 grow	aux
3	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	4 grow	advmod
4	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	taller	tall	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 grow	xcomp
6	over	over	ADV	_	7 time	advmod
7	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 grow	obl:unmarked
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 pushed	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 ground	det
10	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 pushed	nsubj
11	pushed	push	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 grow	advcl
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 pushed	obj
13	up	up	ADP	_	11 pushed	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	It				time	slowly, tall property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	push up	past	the ground	it					vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 2

The soft ground would get harder by itself under the heavy tower

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 ground	det
2	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 ground	amod
3	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 get	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 get	aux
5	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 get	xcomp
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 itself	case
8	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	5 get	obl
9	under	under	ADP	_	12 tower	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 tower	det
11	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 tower	amod
12	tower	tower	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 get	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	would	the soft ground			the heavy tower		by ground; hard property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

Nothing at all, because foundations do not matter for towers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 all	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Nothing	nmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 matter	punct
5	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 matter	mark
6	foundations	foundation	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 matter	nsubj
7	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 matter	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 matter	advmod
9	matter	matter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Nothing	parataxis
10	for	for	ADP	_	11 towers	case
11	towers	tower	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 matter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not matter	present · do-support	foundations					for towers	vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It could sink or lean

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sink	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 sink	aux
3	sink	sink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	or	or	CCONJ	_	5 lean	cc
5	lean	lean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 sink	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sink	could	It						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	lean	infinitive							vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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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