Exam question 2 · The people who were already there: what colonisation did

Identify the principal cause of the collapse of the Indigenous population of the Americas subsequent to 1492.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Indigenous population · What happens: identify, cause, collapse · To what, where: principal cause, collapse

This is exam question 2 of lesson 36 «The people who were already there: what colonisation did» of the geography 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 collapse	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 collapse	det
7	collapse	collapse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 population	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 population	det
10	Indigenous	indigenous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 population	amod
11	population	population	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 collapse	nmod
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 Americas	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Americas	det
14	Americas	AMERICAS	PROPN	Number=Plur	11 population	nmod
15	subsequent	subsequent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 population	amod
16	to	to	ADP	_	17 1492	case
17	1492	1492	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	15 subsequent	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the collapse of the Indigenous population of the Americas	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	cause			the collapse of the Indigenous population of the Americas	nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
3	collapse		the Indigenous population of the Americas		nom collapse «state intransitive»: of=agent

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

Voluntary emigration to Europe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Voluntary	voluntary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 emigration	amod
2	emigration	emigration	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 Europe	case
4	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 emigration	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Introduced diseases, compounded by warfare and forced labour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Introduced	introduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 diseases	amod
2	diseases	disease	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 compounded	nsubj:pass
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 compounded	punct
4	compounded	compound	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 warfare	case
6	warfare	warfare	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 compounded	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 forced	cc
8	forced	force	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 compounded	conj
9	labour	labour	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 forced	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	introduce	participle			vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	compound	participle · passive	warfare	Introduced diseases	vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
3	force	participle	warfare not said here	labour	vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent labour=Recipient

Option 3

An extended period of drought, without any other cause

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 period	det
2	extended	extended	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 period	amod
3	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 drought	case
5	drought	drought	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 period	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 cause	punct
7	without	without	ADP	_	10 cause	case
8	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	10 cause	det
9	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 cause	amod
10	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 period	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

A decline in the birth rate unconnected with conquest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 decline	det
2	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 rate	nsubj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 birth	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 birth	det
5	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 decline	nmod
6	rate	rate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	unconnected	unconnected	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 rate	xcomp
8	with	with	ADP	_	9 conquest	case
9	conquest	conquest	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 unconnected	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rate	infinitive	a decline in the birth					unconnected property	vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent

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/36-the-people-who-were-already-there/e2/