Test 9 · ★ · Writing, laws and money: how strangers learned to trust ea…

Wren's friend says peoples without writing had no laws, just chaos. What would Wren say?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: friend, peoples, Wren · What happens: say, have · To what, where: laws · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 · ★ 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

Sentence 1: Wren's friend says peoples without writing had no laws, just chaos.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wren	Wren	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 friend	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Wren	case
3	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	peoples	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 had	nsubj
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 writing	case
7	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 peoples	nmod
8	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 says	ccomp
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 laws	det
10	laws	law	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 had	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 chaos	punct
12	just	just	ADV	_	13 chaos	advmod
13	chaos	chaos	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 laws	appos
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Wren's friend						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	have	past	peoples without writing	no laws					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent law=Patient

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.

Sentence 2: What would Wren say?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 say	obj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
3	Wren	Wren	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 say	nsubj
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 say	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	Wren						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Not true; they kept their laws on early computers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	2 true	advmod
2	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
3	;	;	PUNCT	_	5 kept	punct
4	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 kept	nsubj
5	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 true	conj
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 laws	nmod:poss
7	laws	law	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 kept	obj
8	on	on	ADP	_	10 computers	case
9	early	early	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 computers	amod
10	computers	computer	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 kept	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	past	they	their laws		early computers			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent law=Theme on computer=Location

Option 2

True, they had no leaders, so nobody made any rules

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	True	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 made	advcl
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 had	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 had	nsubj
4	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 True	conj
5	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 leaders	det
6	leaders	leader	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 had	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 made	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	10 made	advmod
9	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	10 made	nsubj
10	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	12 rules	det
12	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 made	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	they	no leaders					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leader=Patient
2	make	past	nobody	any rules					vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rule=Product

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Not true; laws were kept in memory, speeches and wampum

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	2 true	advmod
2	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
3	;	;	PUNCT	_	6 kept	punct
4	laws	law	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 kept	nsubj:pass
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 kept	aux:pass
6	kept	keep	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 true	conj
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 memory	case
8	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 kept	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 speeches	punct
10	speeches	speech	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 memory	conj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 wampum	cc
12	wampum	wampum	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 memory	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	past · passive		laws		memory and speeches and wampum			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme in memory=Location

Option 4

True, laws can only exist if they are written on paper

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	True	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 laws	amod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 True	punct
3	laws	law	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 exist	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 exist	aux
5	only	only	ADV	_	6 exist	advmod
6	exist	exist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	if	if	SCONJ	_	10 written	mark
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 written	nsubj:pass
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 written	aux:pass
10	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 exist	advcl
11	on	on	ADP	_	12 paper	case
12	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 written	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exist	can	True laws						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	write a condition, not said to happen	present · passive		laws = law		paper			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on paper=Destination

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/63-writing-laws-and-money-how-strangers-learned-to-trust-each-other/t9/