Test 10 · ★ · Why some places grew rich

Amir asks, "Did some countries get rich by nicking stuff off others?" ("Nicking" means stealing.) Best answer?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: Amir, countries, Nicking · What happens: ask, do, get, nick, mean, steal · To what, where: stuff, others · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 72 «Why some places grew rich» 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: Amir asks, "Did some countries get rich by nicking stuff off others?"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Amir	Amir	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 asks	nsubj
2	asks	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 Did	punct
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 Did	punct
5	Did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 asks	ccomp
6	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	7 countries	det
7	countries	country	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 get	nsubj
8	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 Did	ccomp
9	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 get	xcomp
10	by	by	SCONJ	_	11 nicking	mark
11	nicking	nick	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 rich	advcl
12	stuff	stuff	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 nicking	obj
13	off	off	ADP	_	14 others	case
14	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 nicking	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 asks	punct
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 asks	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	present	Amir				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do in a quote	past					tree rules
3	get in a quote	present	some countries			rich property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
4	nick in a quote	gerund	some countries not said here	stuff	others		vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent stuff=Theme off other=Source

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: ("Nicking" means stealing.)

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	(	(	PUNCT	_	5 means	punct
2	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 Nicking	punct
3	Nicking	nicking	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 means	nsubj
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 Nicking	punct
5	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	stealing	steal	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 means	xcomp
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 means	punct
8	)	)	PUNCT	_	5 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Nicking						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	steal not said to happen	gerund	Nicking not said here						vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Sentence 3: Best answer?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	2 answer	amod
2	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 answer	punct

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

The options

Option 1

Only small countries ever did that

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 countries	advmod
2	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 countries	amod
3	countries	country	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 did	nsubj
4	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 did	advmod
5	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 did	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	small countries	that			ever		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Some did, through colonies and slavery, and historians debate how much it explains

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	2 did	nsubj
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 colonies	punct
4	through	through	ADP	_	5 colonies	case
5	colonies	colony	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 did	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 slavery	cc
7	slavery	slavery	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 colonies	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 debate	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 debate	cc
10	historians	historian	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 debate	nsubj
11	debate	debate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	parataxis
12	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	13 much	advmod
13	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 explains	obj
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 explains	nsubj
15	explains	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 debate	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	do	past	Some	colonies and slavery	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colony=Eventuality
2	debate	present	historians		vn chit_chat-37.6-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	explain speech: assert	present	slavery	much	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent much=Topic

Option 3

Yes, and it is the only reason any country is rich, so historians have nothing left to argue about

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	12 rich	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 reason	punct
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 reason	cc
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 reason	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 reason	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 reason	det
7	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 reason	amod
8	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 rich	nsubj
9	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	10 country	det
10	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 rich	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 rich	cop
12	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 have	punct
14	so	so	ADV	_	16 have	advmod
15	historians	historian	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 have	nsubj
16	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 rich	parataxis
17	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	16 have	obj
18	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 nothing	acl
19	to	to	PART	_	20 argue	mark
20	argue	argue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	18 left	advcl
21	about	about	ADP	_	20 argue	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	it	the only reason		tree rules
2	is	present	the only reason		rich property	tree rules
3	have	present	historians	nothing		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient
4	leave	participle				vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	argue speech: disagree	to-infinitive				vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

No country ever took anything from another

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 country	det
2	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 took	nsubj
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 took	advmod
4	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	4 took	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	7 another	case
7	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	4 took	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	past	no country	anything		another	ever		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent anything=Theme from another=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/72-why-some-places-grew-rich/t10/