Test 4 · ★ · i before e, silent letters and other famous traps

What would happen if we spelled every silent letter out of English?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: we · What happens: happen, spell · To what, where: silent letter, English

This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 10 «i before e, silent letters and other famous traps» 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	_	6 spelled	mark
5	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 spelled	nsubj
6	spelled	spell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	9 letter	det
8	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 letter	amod
9	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spelled	obj
10	out	out	ADP	_	12 English	case
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 English	case
12	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 letter	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	spell a condition, not said to happen	participle	we	every silent letter		English			vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent letter=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

Nothing, silent letters do nothing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 letters	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 letters	amod
4	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 do	nsubj
5	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 do	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	Nothing silent letters	nothing					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Words would be easier to spell but would lose clues to their history

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 easier	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 easier	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 easier	cop
4	easier	easy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 spell	mark
6	spell	spell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 easier	xcomp
7	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 lose	cc
8	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 lose	aux
9	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 easier	conj
10	clues	clue	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 lose	obj
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 history	case
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 history	nmod:poss
13	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 lose	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	would	Words		easy property	tree rules
2	spell	to-infinitive	Words not said here			vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent
3	lose	would	Words not said here	clues	to Words's history	vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clue=Eventuality

Option 3

Every word would be read the same in every accent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 read	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 read	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 read	aux:pass
5	read	read	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 same	det
7	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 read	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 accent	case
9	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	10 accent	det
10	accent	accent	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 read	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	would · passive		every word		every accent			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient same=Topic

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Words like «knight» and «night» would still look different, because their meanings differ

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 look	nsubj
2	like	like	ADP	_	4 knight	case
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 knight	punct
4	knight	knight	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Words	nmod
5	»	»	PUNCT	_	4 knight	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 night	cc
7	«	«	PUNCT	_	8 night	punct
8	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 knight	conj
9	»	»	PUNCT	_	8 night	punct
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 look	aux
11	still	still	ADV	_	12 look	advmod
12	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
13	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 look	xcomp
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 differ	punct
15	because	because	SCONJ	_	18 differ	mark
16	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 meanings	nmod:poss
17	meanings	meaning	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 differ	nsubj
18	differ	differ	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 look	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	look	would	Words like knight and night	still	different property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
2	differ	present	Words's meanings			vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	mean		Words = word			nom meaning «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.

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