Test 4 · Sounds and letters: how phonics starts

What would happen if every English sound had to be written with one letter only?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: English sound · What happens: happen, have, write

This is test 4 of lesson 1 «Sounds and letters: how phonics starts» of the English 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	_	8 had	mark
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 sound	det
6	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sound	amod
7	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 had	nsubj
8	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
9	to	to	PART	_	11 written	mark
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 written	aux:pass
11	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 had	xcomp
12	with	with	ADP	_	14 letter	case
13	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 letter	nummod
14	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 written	obl
15	only	only	ADV	_	11 written	advmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	happen	would			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	have a condition, not said to happen	past	every English sound		tree rules
3	write	to-infinitive · passive	every English sound not said here	with one letter	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»

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 · ✓ the right answer

We would need more letters than the 26 we have

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 need	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 need	aux
3	need	need	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 letters	amod
5	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 need	obj
6	than	than	ADP	_	8 26	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 26	det
8	26	26	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	3 need	obl
9	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 have	nsubj
10	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 need	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	would	We	more letters				than the 26	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot letter=Theme
2	have	present	we						vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

All words would become exactly three letters long

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 words	det
2	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 become	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 become	aux
4	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	6 three	advmod
6	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 letters	nummod
7	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 long	obl:unmarked
8	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	all words					long property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3

Nothing, 26 letters cover every sound already

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 cover	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	26	26	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	4 letters	nummod
4	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 cover	nsubj
5	cover	cover	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 sound	det
7	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cover	obj
8	already	already	ADV	_	5 cover	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cover	present	Nothing	every sound					vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme sound=Destination

Option 4

We could drop half the alphabet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 drop	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 drop	aux
3	drop	drop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	half	half	DET	NumForm=Word NumType=Frac PronType=Ind	6 alphabet	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 alphabet	det
6	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drop	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	could	We	half alphabet					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent alphabet=Theme

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/english/1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts/t4/