Exam question 2 · Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the original purpose of Sumerian writing?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Sumerian writing · What happens: follow, characteris, purpose · To what, where: original purpose

This is exam question 2 of lesson 3 «Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing» of the history 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 purpose	det
10	original	original	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 purpose	amod
11	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 writing	case
13	Sumerian	sumerian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 writing	amod
14	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 purpose	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the original purpose of Sumerian writing	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	purpose		Sumerian writing			nom purpose «cognition 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

The correspondence of private persons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 correspondence	det
2	correspondence	correspondence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 persons	case
4	private	private	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 persons	amod
5	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 correspondence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	correspond		private persons						nom correspondence «communication intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2

The composition of epic poetry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 composition	det
2	composition	composition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 poetry	case
4	epic	epic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 poetry	amod
5	poetry	poetry	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 composition	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The recording of quantities of grain and livestock

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 recording	det
2	recording	recording	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 quantities	case
4	quantities	quantity	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 recording	nmod
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 grain	case
6	grain	grain	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 quantities	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 livestock	cc
8	livestock	livestock	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 grain	conj

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

Option 4

The proclamation of royal laws

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 proclamation	det
2	proclamation	proclamation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 laws	case
4	royal	royal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 laws	amod
5	laws	law	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 proclamation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	proclaim			royal laws					nom proclamation «communication transitive»: of=patient

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/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/e2/