Test 11 · ★ · Writing, laws and money: how strangers learned to trust ea…

what if no one could ever write anything down. what would we lose

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: one, we · What happens: write down, lose · To what, where: anything

This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 63 «Writing, laws and money: how strangers learned to trust each other» 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	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 write	mark
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 one	det
4	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 write	nsubj
5	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 write	aux
6	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	7 write	advmod
7	write	write	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 what	advcl
8	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	7 write	obj
9	down	down	ADP	_	7 write	compound:prt
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 what	punct
11	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	14 lose	obj
12	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 lose	aux
13	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	14 lose	nsubj
14	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 what	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write down	could	no one	anything			ever		vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme
2	lose	would	we						vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality

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

Nothing, because people's memory is always perfect anyway, so who needs it

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 perfect	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 perfect	mark
4	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 memory	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 people	case
6	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 perfect	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 perfect	cop
8	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	9 perfect	advmod
9	perfect	perfect	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Nothing	acl
10	anyway	anyway	ADV	_	9 perfect	advmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 needs	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	14 needs	advmod
13	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 needs	nsubj
14	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	parataxis
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 needs	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	people's memory					always, anyway, perfect property	tree rules
2	need	present		memory					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot it=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Records, letters and laws that outlive the people who made them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Records	record	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 letters	punct
3	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Records	conj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 laws	cc
5	laws	law	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Records	conj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 outlive	nsubj
7	outlive	outlive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Records	acl:relcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 people	det
9	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 outlive	obj
10	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 made	nsubj
11	made	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 people	acl:relcl
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 made	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	outlive	present	Records and letters and laws	the people					tree rules
2	make	past	the people	people					vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Product

Option 3

Only maths homework, and we would all be happier

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 homework	advmod
2	maths	math	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 homework	compound
3	homework	homework	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 happier	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 happier	cc
6	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 happier	nsubj
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 happier	aux
8	all	all	ADV	_	10 happier	advmod
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 happier	cop
10	happier	happy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 homework	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	we					all, happy property	tree rules

Option 4

The ability to talk, since speech comes from writing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ability	det
2	ability	ability	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 comes	nsubj
3	to	to	PART	_	4 talk	mark
4	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 ability	acl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 ability	punct
6	since	since	ADP	_	7 speech	case
7	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ability	nmod
8	comes	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	from	from	ADP	_	10 writing	case
10	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 comes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	to-infinitive	the ability since speech not said here						vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	come	present	the ability since speech			writing			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from writing=Initial_Location

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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