Test 4 · ★ · Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1:…

What would have happened if the Stranger-man had understood Taffy's language?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: happen, understand · To what, where: Stranger man

This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 84 «Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1: a broken spear and a picture on birch-bark» of the books 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	4 happened	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 happened	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 happened	aux
4	happened	happen	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	if	if	SCONJ	_	11 understood	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 man	det
7	Stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 man	compound
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 Stranger	punct
9	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 understood	nsubj:pass
10	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 understood	aux
11	understood	understand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 happened	advcl
12	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 language	nmod:poss
13	's	's	PART	_	12 Taffy	case
14	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 understood	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 happened	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would · perfect							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	understand a condition, not said to happen	past · perfect · passive		the Stranger man					tree rules

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

Taffy would have got her spear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 got	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 got	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 got	aux
4	got	get	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 spear	nmod:poss
6	spear	spear	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 got	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	would · perfect	Taffy	Taffy's spear					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer spear=Stimulus

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He could simply have been told to fetch the spear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 told	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 told	aux
3	simply	simply	ADV	_	6 told	advmod
4	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 told	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 told	aux:pass
6	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 fetch	mark
8	fetch	fetch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 told	xcomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 spear	det
10	spear	spear	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fetch	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	could · perfect · passive		He				simply property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	fetch not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here	the spear					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spear=Theme

Option 3

He would have fished

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 fished	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 fished	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 fished	aux
4	fished	fish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fish	would · perfect	He						vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

He would have helped at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 helped	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 helped	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 helped	aux
4	helped	help	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 once	case
6	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	4 helped	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	would · perfect	He						vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/84-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear/t4/