Test 5 · Direct speech: inverted commas and new speakers

What would happen if every line of a long conversation was in one paragraph?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: line · What happens: happen, be · To what, where: one paragraph

This is test 5 of lesson 35 «Direct speech: inverted commas and new speakers» 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	_	14 paragraph	mark
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 line	det
6	line	line	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 paragraph	nsubj
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 conversation	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 conversation	det
9	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 conversation	amod
10	conversation	conversation	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 line	nmod
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 paragraph	cop
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 paragraph	case
13	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 paragraph	nummod
14	paragraph	paragraph	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	advcl
15	?	?	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	is a condition, not said to happen	past	every line of a long conversation			one paragraph			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

Nothing at all, readers always know

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 all	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Nothing	nmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 readers	punct
5	readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Nothing	conj
6	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 know	advmod
7	know	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	present						always property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Readers would lose track of who was speaking

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lose	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 lose	aux
3	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	track	track	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lose	obj
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	8 speaking	mark
6	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 speaking	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 speaking	aux
8	speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 track	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	would	Readers	track					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent track=Eventuality
2	speak speech: other	past · progressive	track						vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The story would become much easier for readers to follow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 story	det
2	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 become	aux
4	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	much	much	ADV	_	6 easier	advmod
6	easier	easy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 become	xcomp
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 readers	case
8	readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 easier	obl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 follow	mark
10	follow	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 easier	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	the story					easy property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	follow	to-infinitive	the story not said here						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

It would turn into reported speech

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	aux
3	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 speech	case
5	reported	report	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 speech	amod
6	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	It			reported speech			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into speech=Trajectory
2	report	participle							vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V NP»: 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/35-direct-speech-inverted-commas-and-new-speakers/t5/