Test 12 · Languages and peoples on the map

How did English become so widespread when it was once a small language of one island?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: English, it · What happens: become, be · To what, where: widespread small language

This is test 12 of lesson 25 «Languages and peoples on the map» of the geography 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	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	4 become	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 become	aux
3	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 become	nsubj
4	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	so	so	ADV	_	6 widespread	advmod
6	widespread	widespread	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 language	amod
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 language	advmod
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 language	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 language	cop
10	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	13 language	advmod
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 language	det
12	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 language	amod
13	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	xcomp
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 island	case
15	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	16 island	nummod
16	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 language	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 become	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	past · do-support	English						vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	is a	past	it	a widespread small language				of one island; once property	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

It was always spoken everywhere, even before Britain had ships

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 spoken	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 spoken	aux:pass
3	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 spoken	advmod
4	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 spoken	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 had	punct
7	even	even	ADV	_	10 had	advmod
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	10 had	mark
9	Britain	Britain	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 had	nsubj
10	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 spoken	parataxis
11	ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	past · passive		It				always, everywhere property	tree rules
2	have	past	Britain	ships					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ship=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Latin turned into English across Europe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Latin	Latin	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 turned	nsubj
2	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	4 English	case
4	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 turned	obl
5	across	across	ADP	_	6 Europe	case
6	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 turned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	past	Latin					into English result; across Europe	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into english=Result

Option 3

Everyone voted for it in 1500

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	2 voted	nsubj
2	voted	vote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	4 it	case
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 voted	obl
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 1500	case
6	1500	1500	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	2 voted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	vote	past	Everyone			1500		for it goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent for it=Goal

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It spread with the British Empire and later with the USA

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	2 spread	nsubj
2	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	6 Empire	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Empire	det
5	British	British	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 Empire	amod
6	Empire	Empire	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 spread	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 USA	cc
8	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	11 USA	advmod
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 USA	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 USA	det
11	USA	USA	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Empire	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	past	It					with the British Empire and the USA	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/geography/25-languages-and-peoples-on-the-map/t12/