Exam question 2 · Vowel teams, split digraphs and choosing the spelling

Ascertain the course of action appropriate to a reader who encounters a letter team possessing two possible sounds.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, reader, letter team · What happens: ascertain, encounter, possess · To what, where: course, letter team, two possible sounds

This is exam question 2 of lesson 4 «Vowel teams, split digraphs and choosing the spelling» of the English course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 course	det
3	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 action	case
5	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 course	nmod
6	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 action	amod
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 reader	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 reader	det
9	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 appropriate	obl
10	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 encounters	nsubj
11	encounters	encounter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 reader	acl:relcl
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 team	det
13	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 team	compound
14	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 encounters	obj
15	possessing	possess	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 team	acl
16	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	18 sounds	nummod
17	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 sounds	amod
18	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 possessing	obj
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the course of action	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Topic
2	encounter	present	a reader	a letter team	vn encounter-30.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer team=Stimulus
3	possess	gerund	a letter team not said here	two possible sounds	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot sound=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

To omit the word entirely and continue reading

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 omit	mark
2	omit	omit	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 word	det
4	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 omit	obj
5	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	2 omit	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 continue	cc
7	continue	continue	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 omit	conj
8	reading	reading	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 continue	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	omit	to-infinitive		the word				entirely property	vn exclude-107.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
2	continue	infinitive		reading					vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent reading=Theme

Option 2

To pronounce the team invariably in its more common manner, irrespective of the meaning of the sentence in which it stands

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 pronounce	mark
2	pronounce	pronounce	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 team	det
4	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pronounce	obj
5	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	2 pronounce	advmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	10 manner	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 manner	nmod:poss
8	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 common	advmod
9	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 manner	amod
10	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pronounce	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 meaning	punct
12	irrespective	irrespective	ADV	_	15 meaning	advmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 meaning	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 meaning	det
15	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pronounce	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 sentence	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sentence	det
18	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 meaning	nmod
19	in	in	ADP	_	20 which	case
20	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	22 stands	obl
21	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 stands	nsubj
22	stands	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 meaning	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	pronounce	to-infinitive		the team	team's common manner	of the meaning of the sentence; invariably property	vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent team=Theme in manner=Manner
2	stand	present	team		the meaning of the sentence		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in which=Location
3	mean			the sentence			nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

To attempt each sound in turn and retain that which yields a real word suited to the sentence

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 attempt	mark
2	attempt	attempt	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	4 sound	det
4	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attempt	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 turn	case
6	turn	turn	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attempt	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 retain	cc
8	retain	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 attempt	conj
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 yields	mark
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 yields	nsubj
11	yields	yield	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 retain	ccomp
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 word	det
13	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 word	amod
14	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 yields	obj
15	suited	suit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 word	acl
16	to	to	ADP	_	18 sentence	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sentence	det
18	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 suited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	attempt	to-infinitive	each sound	turn		vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Eventuality
2	retain	present				tree rules
3	yield	present	a real word			vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent word=Theme
4	suit	participle	a real word not said here		to the sentence	tree rules

Option 4

To pronounce each letter of the team separately

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 pronounce	mark
2	pronounce	pronounce	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	4 letter	det
4	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pronounce	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 team	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 team	det
7	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 letter	nmod
8	separately	separately	ADV	_	2 pronounce	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pronounce	to-infinitive		each letter of the team				separately property	vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme
2	letter			the team					nom letter «communication transitive»: of=patient

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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