Test 5 · ★ · Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones

What would happen if we wrote «box» plural as «boxs»?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: we · What happens: happen, write · To what, where: box

This is test 5 · ★ of lesson 6 «Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones» 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 wrote	mark
5	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 wrote	nsubj
6	wrote	write	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	«	«	PUNCT	_	8 box	punct
8	box	box	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wrote	obj
9	»	»	PUNCT	_	8 box	punct
10	plural	plural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 wrote	xcomp
11	as	as	ADP	_	13 boxs	case
12	«	«	PUNCT	_	13 boxs	punct
13	boxs	box	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 plural	obl
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct
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	write a condition, not said to happen	past	we	box				plural property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent box=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 · ← Mova's choice

Nothing, «boxs» is just as correct

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	9 correct	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 boxs	punct
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 boxs	punct
4	boxs	box	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Nothing	appos
5	»	»	PUNCT	_	4 boxs	punct
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 correct	cop
7	just	just	ADV	_	9 correct	advmod
8	as	as	ADV	_	9 correct	advmod
9	correct	correct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Nothing					correct property	tree rules

Option 2

The word would mean one box

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mean	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 mean	aux
4	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 box	nummod
6	box	box	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mean	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	would	the word	one box					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent box=Topic

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The spelling would not show the extra beat we hear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 spelling	det
2	spelling	spelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 show	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 show	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 show	advmod
5	show	show	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 beat	det
7	extra	extra	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 beat	amod
8	beat	beat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 show	obj
9	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 hear	nsubj
10	hear	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 beat	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not show	would	the spelling	the extra beat					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent beat=Recipient
2	hear	present	we	the extra beat not said here					vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer beat=Stimulus

Option 4

It would be the American spelling

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	6 spelling	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 spelling	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 spelling	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 spelling	det
5	American	American	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 spelling	amod
6	spelling	spelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	would	It	the American spelling					tree rules

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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