Test 4 · Handwriting: holding the pencil and joining up

What would happen if Nate kept leaving no spaces between words?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: Nate · What happens: happen, keep, leave · To what, where: spaces, words

This is test 4 of lesson 5 «Handwriting: holding the pencil and joining up» 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 kept	mark
5	Nate	Nate	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 kept	nsubj
6	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	leaving	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 kept	xcomp
8	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 spaces	det
9	spaces	space	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 leaving	obj
10	between	between	ADP	_	11 words	case
11	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 leaving	obl
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	happen	would				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	keep a condition, not said to happen	past	Nate			tree rules
3	leave	gerund	Nate not said here	no spaces	words	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent space=Theme between word=Location

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 · ✓ the right answer

Readers would struggle to find where words begin and end

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 struggle	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 struggle	aux
3	struggle	struggle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 find	mark
5	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 struggle	xcomp
6	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	8 begin	advmod
7	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 begin	nsubj
8	begin	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 find	ccomp
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 end	cc
10	end	end	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 begin	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	struggle	would	Readers	tree rules
2	find	to-infinitive	Readers not said here	vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	begin	present	words	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
4	end	present	words not said here	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 2

His spelling marks would go up, because no spaces means no mistakes between words

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 marks	nmod:poss
2	spelling	spelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 marks	compound
3	marks	mark	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 go	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 go	aux
5	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	up	up	ADP	_	5 go	compound:prt
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 means	punct
8	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 means	mark
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 spaces	det
10	spaces	space	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 means	nsubj
11	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 go	parataxis
12	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	13 mistakes	det
13	mistakes	mistake	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 means	obj
14	between	between	ADP	_	15 words	case
15	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 mistakes	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	go up	would	His spelling marks			vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	mean	present	no spaces	no mistakes	between words	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mistake=Topic
3	mark		His = he			nom mark «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

His writing would be read twice as fast

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 writing	nmod:poss
2	writing	writing	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	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	5 read	advmod
7	as	as	ADV	_	8 fast	advmod
8	fast	fast	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 read	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	would · passive		His writing				fast, twice property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic
2	write		His = he						nom writing «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Nothing, readers can always see where words end

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 readers	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 see	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 see	aux
5	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	6 see	advmod
6	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	9 end	advmod
8	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 end	nsubj
9	end	end	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 see	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	can	Nothing readers					always property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	end	present	words						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

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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