Test 3 · ★ · Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 3:…

What would have happened if Taffy had drawn the spear once, small and clear, beside Mummy?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Taffy · What happens: happen, draw · To what, where: spear, Mummy

This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 86 «Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 3: «a great invention» and the road on Merrow Down» 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	_	8 drawn	mark
6	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 drawn	nsubj
7	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 drawn	aux
8	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 happened	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 spear	det
10	spear	spear	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 drawn	obj
11	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	8 drawn	advmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 small	punct
13	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 drawn	conj
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 clear	cc
15	clear	clear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 small	conj
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 Mummy	punct
17	beside	beside	ADP	_	18 Mummy	case
18	Mummy	Mummy	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 drawn	obl
19	?	?	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	draw a condition, not said to happen	past · perfect	Taffy	the spear		Mummy		once property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spear=Theme

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

The Tribe would certainly not have come, and everyone would have understood at once

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Tribe	det
2	Tribe	Tribe	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 come	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 come	aux
4	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	7 come	advmod
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 come	advmod
6	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 come	aux
7	come	come	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 understood	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 understood	cc
10	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	13 understood	nsubj:pass
11	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 understood	aux
12	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 understood	aux
13	understood	understand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 come	advcl
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 once	case
15	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	13 understood	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not come	would · perfect	the Tribe					certainly property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	understand	would · perfect · passive		everyone					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus

Option 2

Nothing could ever be misread

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 misread	nsubj:pass
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 misread	aux
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 misread	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 misread	aux:pass
5	misread	misread	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	misread	could · passive		Nothing			ever		tree rules

Option 3

Teshumai would have written back

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Teshumai	Teshumai	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 written	nsubj:pass
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 written	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 written	aux
4	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	back	back	ADV	_	4 written	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write back	would · perfect · passive		Teshumai					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Perhaps less fright, but a picture could still be misread

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	_	2 less	advmod
2	less	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 fright	amod
3	fright	fright	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 misread	punct
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	11 misread	cc
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 picture	det
7	picture	picture	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 misread	nsubj:pass
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 misread	aux
9	still	still	ADV	_	11 misread	advmod
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 misread	aux:pass
11	misread	misread	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 fright	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	misread	could · passive	less fright not said here	a picture			still		tree rules

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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