Test 7 · ★★ · Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so…

Real life: why is an alphabet so powerful?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: alphabet · What happens: be

This is test 7 · ★★ of lesson 88 «Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water» 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	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 life	amod
2	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	:	:	PUNCT	_	9 powerful	punct
4	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	9 powerful	advmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 powerful	cop
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 alphabet	det
7	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 powerful	nsubj
8	so	so	ADV	_	9 powerful	advmod
9	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 life	parataxis
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 life	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a alphabet					powerful property	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 · ✓ the right answer

A few sound-signs can write any word at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 signs	det
2	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 signs	amod
3	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 signs	compound
4	-	-	PUNCT	_	3 sound	punct
5	signs	sign	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 write	nsubj
6	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 write	aux
7	write	write	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 word	det
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 write	obj
10	at	at	ADP	_	11 all	case
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 write	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	can	a few sound signs	any word		all			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme

Option 2

Words are easy to carve in stone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 easy	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 easy	cop
3	easy	easy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 carve	mark
5	carve	carve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 easy	xcomp
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 stone	case
7	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 carve	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Words					easy property	tree rules
2	carve	to-infinitive	Words not said here			stone			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in stone=Destination

Option 3

A few sound-signs can write any word at all, so nobody needs to learn thousands of pictures

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 signs	det
2	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 signs	amod
3	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 signs	compound
4	-	-	PUNCT	_	3 sound	punct
5	signs	sign	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 write	nsubj
6	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 write	aux
7	write	write	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 word	det
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 write	obj
10	at	at	ADP	_	11 all	case
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 write	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 needs	punct
13	so	so	ADV	_	15 needs	advmod
14	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	15 needs	nsubj
15	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 write	advcl
16	to	to	PART	_	17 learn	mark
17	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 needs	xcomp
18	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 learn	obj
19	of	of	ADP	_	20 pictures	case
20	pictures	picture	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 thousands	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	write	can	a few sound signs	any word	all	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
2	need	present	nobody			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	learn not said to happen	to-infinitive	nobody not said here	thousands of pictures		vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thousand=Topic

Option 4

Each word needs its own sign always

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 needs	nsubj
3	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 sign	nmod:poss
5	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 sign	amod
6	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 needs	obj
7	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	3 needs	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	each word	word's own sign				always property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot sign=Theme
2	sign		word						nom sign «communication transitive»: poss=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/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/t7/