Exam question 3 · Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the initial letter h in the word hôtel.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, initial letter h, word hôtel

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1 «Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes» of the French 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 h	det
11	initial	initial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 h	amod
12	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 h	compound
13	h	H	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 hôtel	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 hôtel	det
16	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 hôtel	compound
17	hôtel	hôtel	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 h	nmod
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the initial letter h	the word hôtel		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus h=Experiencer

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

It is pronounced as a scraping sound in the throat

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 pronounced	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 pronounced	aux:pass
3	pronounced	pronounce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	_	7 sound	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 sound	det
6	scraping	scrape	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 sound	amod
7	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pronounced	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 throat	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 throat	det
10	throat	throat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pronounced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pronounce	present · passive		It		the throat		as a scraping sound	vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: subject=Theme in throat=Manner
2	scrape	gerund							vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It is never aspirated, so the word commences upon its vowel

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	4 aspirated	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 aspirated	aux:pass
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 aspirated	advmod
4	aspirated	aspirate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 commences	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	9 commences	advmod
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 word	det
8	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 commences	nsubj
9	commences	commence	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 aspirated	conj
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 vowel	case
11	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 vowel	nmod:poss
12	vowel	vowel	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 commences	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not aspirate	present · passive		It					tree rules
2	commence	present	the word					upon word's vowel	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 3

It is pronounced solely when the word appears in capitals

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 pronounced	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 pronounced	aux:pass
3	pronounced	pronounce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 pronounced	advmod
5	when	when	SCONJ	_	8 appears	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 word	det
7	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 appears	nsubj
8	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 pronounced	advcl
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 capitals	case
10	capitals	capital	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 appears	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pronounce	present · passive		It				solely property	vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	appear	present	the word			capitals			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in capital=Location

Option 4

It is aspirated vigorously, after the English manner

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 aspirated	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 aspirated	aux:pass
3	aspirated	aspirate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	vigorously	vigorously	ADV	_	3 aspirated	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 manner	punct
6	after	after	ADP	_	9 manner	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 manner	det
8	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 manner	amod
9	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 aspirated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	aspirate	present · passive		It			after the English manner	vigorously property	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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/french/1-silent-letters-why-french-doesnt-say-everything-it-writes/e3/