Test 11 · China: the four great inventions

Why did the alphabet suit Gutenberg's movable type so well?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: alphabet, Gutenberg · What happens: do, suit, type · To what, where: movable type

This is test 11 of lesson 53 «China: the four great inventions» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	2 did	advmod
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 alphabet	det
4	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 suit	nsubj
5	suit	suit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	ccomp
6	Gutenberg	Gutenberg	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 type	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Gutenberg	case
8	movable	movable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 type	amod
9	type	type	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 suit	obj
10	so	so	ADV	_	11 well	advmod
11	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 suit	advmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past				tree rules
2	suit	present	the alphabet	Gutenberg's movable type	well property	tree rules
3	type		Gutenberg			nom type «cognition transitive»: poss=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 right answer

It has only a few dozen letters to make

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 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	7 letters	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 letters	det
5	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 letters	amod
6	dozen	dozen	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 letters	compound
7	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 has	obj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 make	mark
9	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 letters	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	It	a few dozen letters					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Patient
2	make	to-infinitive		a few dozen letters not said here					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

Option 2

The alphabet was Chinese

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 alphabet	det
2	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 Chinese	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 Chinese	cop
4	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the alphabet					chinese property	tree rules

Option 3

Letters are prettier

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 prettier	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 prettier	cop
3	prettier	pretty	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Letters					pretty property	tree rules

Option 4

Europe had no wood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 wood	det
4	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	Europe	no wood					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wood=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.

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