Test 2 · Trade: why people swap, and the great trade routes

«silk road = one long motorway» says Mei's mate. Mei: nah, that's cap. Why?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: one long motorway · What happens: say, be · To what, where: mate, cap · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 of lesson 70 «Trade: why people swap, and the great trade routes» 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: «silk road = one long motorway» says Mei's mate.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	3 road	punct
2	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 road	compound
3	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 =	nsubj
4	=	=	SYM	_	9 says	punct
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 motorway	nummod
6	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 motorway	amod
7	motorway	motorway	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 says	nsubj
8	»	»	PUNCT	_	7 motorway	punct
9	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	Mei	Mei	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 mate	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 Mei	case
12	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 says	obj
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	one long motorway	Mei's mate					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent mate=Topic

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: Mei: nah, that's cap.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mei	Mei	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	3 nah	punct
3	nah	nah	INTJ	_	1 Mei	discourse
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 cap	punct
5	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 cap	det
6	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 cap	cop
7	cap	cap	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Mei	appos
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Mei	punct

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

Sentence 3: Why?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	root	root
2	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Why	punct

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

The options

Option 1

It went only round Rome and never reached China

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 went	nsubj
2	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 Rome	advmod
4	round	round	ADP	_	5 Rome	case
5	Rome	Rome	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 reached	cc
7	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	8 reached	advmod
8	reached	reach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 went	conj
9	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	It	China		Rome			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme round rome=Initial_Location
2	not reach	past							vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It was one road, but with petrol stations every few km

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	4 road	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 road	cop
3	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 road	nummod
4	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 stations	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 stations	cc
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 stations	case
8	petrol	petrol	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 stations	compound
9	stations	station	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 road	conj
10	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	12 km	det
11	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 km	amod
12	km	km	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 stations	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	one road but petrol stations every few km					tree rules

Option 3

It was a sea route only, with no roads on land at all

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 route	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 route	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 route	det
4	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 route	compound
5	route	route	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	only	only	ADV	_	5 route	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 roads	punct
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 roads	case
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 roads	det
10	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 route	conj
11	on	on	ADP	_	12 land	case
12	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 roads	nmod
13	at	at	ADP	_	14 all	case
14	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 route	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	a sea route and no roads on land		all			tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It was many routes, with goods passed hand to hand

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	4 routes	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 routes	cop
3	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 routes	amod
4	routes	route	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 goods	punct
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 goods	case
7	goods	goods	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 routes	conj
8	passed	pass	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 routes	acl
9	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 passed	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 hand	mark
11	hand	hand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 passed	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	past	It	many routes and goods	tree rules
2	pass	participle	many routes and goods not said here	hand	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme hand=Trajectory
3	hand	to-infinitive	many routes and goods not said here		vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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/70-trade-why-people-swap-and-the-great-trade-routes/t2/