Test 5 · ★★★ · Australia and New Zealand: a short story

If a government says sorry for taking children from families, why might that matter even years later?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: government, that · What happens: say, take, matter · To what, where: children, families · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 5 · ★★★ of lesson 40 «Australia and New Zealand: a short story» 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	4 says	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 government	det
3	government	government	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	sorry	sorry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 says	xcomp
6	for	for	SCONJ	_	7 taking	mark
7	taking	take	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 says	advcl
8	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 taking	obj
9	from	from	ADP	_	10 families	case
10	families	family	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 taking	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 matter	punct
12	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	15 matter	advmod
13	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 matter	aux
14	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	15 matter	nsubj
15	matter	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 taking	conj
16	even	even	ADV	_	17 years	advmod
17	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 later	obl:unmarked
18	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	15 matter	advmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: apologize	present	a government			sorry property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	take	gerund	a government not said here	children	families		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent child=Theme from family=Initial_Location
3	matter	might	that			late property	vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

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

It brings back the gold

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 brings	nsubj
2	brings	bring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	back	back	ADV	_	2 brings	advmod
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 gold	det
5	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 brings	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bring back	present	It	the gold					vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent gold=Theme

Option 2

It changes nothing at all, because words cannot ever matter after so long

The tree, 14 words

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 changes	nsubj
2	changes	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 changes	obj
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 all	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 nothing	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 matter	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	12 matter	mark
8	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 matter	nsubj
9	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 matter	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 matter	advmod
11	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	12 matter	advmod
12	matter	matter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 changes	parataxis
13	after	after	SCONJ	_	15 long	mark
14	so	so	ADV	_	15 long	advmod
15	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	12 matter	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	present	It	nothing		all			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient
2	not matter	can	words				ever	long property	vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Many of those children and their families are still alive and hurting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 children	case
3	those	that	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	4 children	det
4	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Many	nmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 alive	cc
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 families	nmod:poss
7	families	family	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 alive	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 alive	cop
9	still	still	ADV	_	10 alive	advmod
10	alive	alive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Many	conj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 hurting	cc
12	hurting	hurt	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 alive	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	children's families				still	alive property	tree rules
2	hurt	gerund	children's families not said here						vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4

It is only a formality

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	5 formality	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 formality	cop
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 formality	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 formality	det
5	formality	formality	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a formality					tree rules

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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