Test 8 · Sounds and letters: how phonics starts

Grandad: «nae fancy phonics in ma day, we just read». What is fair to say?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: nae, Grandad · What happens: phonic, read, be, say · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 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

Sentence 1: Grandad: «nae fancy phonics in ma day, we just read».

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Grandad	Grandad	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 read	nsubj
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	6 phonics	punct
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 nae	punct
4	nae	nae	X	Foreign=Yes	6 phonics	nsubj
5	fancy	fancy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 phonics	amod
6	phonics	phonic	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Grandad	appos
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 day	case
8	ma	ma	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 day	compound
9	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 phonics	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Grandad	punct
11	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	13 read	nsubj
12	just	just	ADV	_	13 read	advmod
13	read	read	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 read	punct
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	13 read	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	phonic in a quote		nae				day		tree rules
2	read in a quote	past	Grandad						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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.

Sentence 2: What is fair to say?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 fair	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 fair	cop
3	fair	fair	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 say	mark
5	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 fair	csubj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 fair	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						fair property	tree rules
2	say speech: assert	to-infinitive							vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

The options

Option 1

Grandad couldn't have learned to read at all without phonics

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Grandad	Grandad	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 learned	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 learned	aux
3	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 learned	advmod
4	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 learned	aux
5	learned	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 read	mark
7	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 learned	xcomp
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 all	case
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 read	obl
10	without	without	ADP	_	11 phonics	case
11	phonics	phonic	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 read	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not learn	could · perfect	Grandad						vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	read	to-infinitive	Grandad not said here			all		without phonics	vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP PP.value»: agent=Agent at all=Value

Option 2

Phonics was used by everyone in his day, he just forgot

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Phonics	phonic	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 used	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 used	aux:pass
3	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 everyone	case
5	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	3 used	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 day	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 day	nmod:poss
8	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 everyone	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 used	punct
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 forgot	nsubj
11	just	just	ADV	_	12 forgot	advmod
12	forgot	forget	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 used	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	past · passive	everyone	Phonics					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	forget	past	he						tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Many learned by whole words, but phonics helps children read words they've never seen

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 learned	nsubj
2	learned	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 helps	csubj:pass
3	by	by	ADP	_	5 words	case
4	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 words	amod
5	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 learned	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 helps	punct
7	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 helps	cc
8	phonics	phonic	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 helps	nsubj
9	helps	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 helps	obj
11	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 helps	xcomp
12	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 read	obj
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 seen	nsubj
14	've	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 seen	aux
15	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	16 seen	advmod
16	seen	see	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	12 words	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	learn	participle	Many		by whole words	vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	help	present	phonics	children		vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent child=Beneficiary clause=Theme
3	read	infinitive	children not said here	words		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Topic
4	not see	present · perfect	phonics = phonic	words not said here		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus

Option 4

Whole-word reading is the only way anyone has ever learned to read, in any country

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 word	amod
2	-	-	PUNCT	_	1 Whole	punct
3	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reading	compound
4	reading	reading	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 way	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 way	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 way	det
7	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 way	amod
8	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	12 learned	nsubj
10	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 learned	aux
11	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	12 learned	advmod
12	learned	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 way	acl:relcl
13	to	to	PART	_	14 read	mark
14	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 learned	xcomp
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 country	punct
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 country	case
17	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	18 country	det
18	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 way	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	is a	present	word reading	the only way and any country		tree rules
2	learn	present · perfect	anyone	the only way and any country not said here	ever	tree rules
3	read	to-infinitive	anyone not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts/t8/