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Test 10 · ★★ · How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the al…

★★ A Phoenician word «brd» could be read «bread», «bird», «bard» or «board». Which problem do the missing letters cause?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: ★, problem, missing letters · What happens: ★, read, do, cause · To what, where: Phoenician word

This is test 10 · ★★ of lesson 82 «How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the alphabet» 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: ★★ A Phoenician word «brd» could be read «bread», «bird», «bard» or «board».

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	★	★	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 ★	nsubj
2	★	★	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 word	det
4	Phoenician	phoenician	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 word	amod
5	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 read	nsubj:pass
6	«	«	PUNCT	_	7 brd	punct
7	brd	brd	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 word	appos
8	»	»	PUNCT	_	7 brd	punct
9	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 read	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 read	aux:pass
11	read	read	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 ★	advcl
12	«	«	PUNCT	_	13 bread	punct
13	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 read	obj
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 bread	punct
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 bird	punct
16	«	«	PUNCT	_	17 bird	punct
17	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 bread	conj
18	»	»	PUNCT	_	17 bird	punct
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 bard	punct
20	«	«	PUNCT	_	21 bard	punct
21	bard	bard	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 bread	conj
22	»	»	PUNCT	_	21 bard	punct
23	or	or	CCONJ	_	25 board	cc
24	«	«	PUNCT	_	25 board	punct
25	board	board	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 bread	conj
26	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 bread	punct
27	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 ★	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	★	present	★						tree rules
2	read	could · passive		a Phoenician word					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient bread=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: Which problem do the missing letters cause?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 problem	det
2	problem	problem	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 do	nsubj
3	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 letters	det
5	missing	missing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 letters	amod
6	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 cause	nsubj
7	cause	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 do	advcl
8	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 do	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	which problem						vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	cause	present	the missing letters						vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition

The options

Option 1

Without vowels words become far too long to write

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Without	without	ADP	_	2 vowels	case
2	vowels	vowel	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 become	obl
3	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 become	nsubj
4	become	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	7 long	advmod
6	too	too	ADV	_	7 long	advmod
7	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 become	advmod
8	to	to	PART	_	9 write	mark
9	write	write	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 long	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	words					without vowels; long property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	write	to-infinitive	words not said here						vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Without vowels you cannot write any word at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Without	without	ADP	_	2 vowels	case
2	vowels	vowel	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 write	obl
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 write	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 write	aux
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 write	advmod
6	write	write	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 word	det
8	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 write	obj
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 all	case
10	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 write	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not write	can	you	any word		all		without vowels	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme

Option 3

Without vowels nobody could say the word out loud

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Without	without	ADP	_	2 vowels	case
2	vowels	vowel	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 say	obl
3	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 say	nsubj
4	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 say	aux
5	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 word	det
7	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 say	obj
8	out	out	ADP	_	5 say	compound:prt
9	loud	loud	ADV	_	5 say	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say out speech: assert	could	nobody	the word				without vowels; loud property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Without vowels a word can be read in several ways

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Without	without	ADP	_	2 vowels	case
2	vowels	vowel	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 read	obl
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 word	det
4	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 read	nsubj:pass
5	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 read	aux
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 read	aux:pass
7	read	read	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 ways	case
9	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 ways	amod
10	ways	way	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 read	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	can · passive		a word		several ways		without vowels	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic

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/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/t10/