Test 10 · The first people: hunters, gatherers and cave painters

Which is true about when people started talking?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: people · What happens: be, start, talk

This is test 10 of lesson 1 «The first people: hunters, gatherers and cave painters» of the history 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	3 true	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 true	cop
3	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	about	about	SCONJ	_	7 started	mark
5	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	7 started	advmod
6	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 started	nsubj
7	started	start	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 true	advcl
8	talking	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 started	xcomp
9	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 true	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present		true property	tree rules
2	start	past	people		vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	talk	gerund	people not said here		vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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

Language began exactly 5,000 years ago, in Egypt

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 began	nsubj
2	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	4 5,000	advmod
4	5,000	5000	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 years	nummod
5	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 ago	obl:unmarked
6	ago	ago	ADV	_	2 began	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 Egypt	punct
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 Egypt	case
9	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 began	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	begin	past	Language			Egypt		ago property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 2

People only grunted until farming began

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	People	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 grunted	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 grunted	advmod
3	grunted	grunt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	until	until	SCONJ	_	6 began	mark
5	farming	farming	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 began	nsubj
6	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 grunted	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grunt	past	People						vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	begin	past	farming						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 3

Talking was invented by the Romans

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Talking	talk	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 invented	csubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 invented	aux:pass
3	invented	invent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 Romans	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Romans	det
6	Romans	Roman	PROPN	Number=Plur	3 invented	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	gerund							vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	invent	past · passive	the Romans						vn create-26.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

Nobody knows exactly when language began

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 knows	nsubj
2	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	6 began	advmod
4	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	6 began	advmod
5	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 began	nsubj
6	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 knows	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	present	Nobody						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	begin	past	language					exactly property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

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/history/1-the-first-people/t10/