Test 7 · ★ · The spice trade and the Indian Ocean

Why did merchants share the cost of voyages in companies?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: merchants · What happens: share, cost · To what, where: cost, voyages

This is test 7 · ★ of lesson 29 «The spice trade and the Indian Ocean» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 share	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 share	aux
3	merchants	merchant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 share	nsubj
4	share	share	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cost	det
6	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 share	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 voyages	case
8	voyages	voyage	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 cost	nmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 companies	case
10	companies	company	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 voyages	nmod
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 share	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	share	past · do-support	merchants	the cost of voyages in companies					tree rules
2	cost			voyages in companies					nom cost «possession transitive»: of=patient

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

Each merchant only wanted a tiny profit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 merchant	det
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wanted	nsubj
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 wanted	advmod
4	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 profit	det
6	tiny	tiny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 profit	amod
7	profit	profit	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wanted	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	each merchant	a tiny profit					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot profit=Theme

Option 2

Companies were cheaper to sink

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Companies	company	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 cheaper	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 cheaper	cop
3	cheaper	cheap	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 sink	mark
5	sink	sink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 cheaper	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Companies					cheap property	tree rules
2	sink	to-infinitive	Companies not said here						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

The king forbade anyone to own a ship on their own

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 king	det
2	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forbade	nsubj
3	forbade	forbid	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	3 forbade	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 own	mark
6	own	own	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 forbade	xcomp
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 ship	det
8	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 own	obj
9	on	on	ADP	_	11 own	case
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 own	nmod:poss
11	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 own	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forbid	past	the king	anyone					tree rules
2	own	to-infinitive	the king not said here	a ship		their own			vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ship=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Voyages were costly and risky, so sharing spread the risk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Voyages	voyage	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 costly	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 costly	cop
3	costly	costly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 risky	cc
5	risky	risky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 costly	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 spread	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	9 spread	advmod
8	sharing	share	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 spread	nsubj
9	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 costly	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 risk	det
11	risk	risk	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 spread	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	Voyages		costly property	tree rules
2	be		Voyages not said here			tree rules
3	share	gerund				tree rules
4	spread	present		the risk		vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location risk=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.

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