Test 6 · ★★ · How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the al…

«Chinese is just an alphabet with loads of letters innit» What is right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be, innit · To what, where: Chinese alphabet, letters · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 6 · ★★ 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 alphabet	punct
2	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 alphabet	amod
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 alphabet	cop
4	just	just	ADV	_	6 alphabet	advmod
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 alphabet	det
6	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 loads	case
8	loads	load	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 alphabet	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 letters	case
10	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 loads	nmod
11	innit	innit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 letters	acl
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 innit	punct
13	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	15 right	nsubj
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 right	cop
15	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 innit	parataxis
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 alphabet	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a in a quote	present	a Chinese alphabet	with loads of letters	tree rules
2	innit in a quote	participle	letters not said here		tree rules
3	is	present		right property	tree rules

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

Yes, it has exactly 26 letters like English

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 has	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 has	nsubj
4	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	6 26	advmod
6	26	26	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	7 letters	nummod
7	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 has	obj
8	like	like	ADP	_	9 English	case
9	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 letters	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	it	26 letters				like English	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

No, it uses thousands of characters, not 26 letters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 uses	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 uses	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 uses	nsubj
4	uses	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 uses	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 characters	case
7	characters	character	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 thousands	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 letters	punct
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 letters	advmod
10	26	26	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	11 letters	nummod
11	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 uses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present	it	thousands of characters					tree rules

Option 3

No, Chinese is not written down at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	3 Chinese	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 written	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 written	aux:pass
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 written	advmod
6	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	down	down	ADP	_	6 written	compound:prt
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 all	case
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 written	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not write down	present · passive		Chinese		all			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

Yes, it is the Greek alphabet drawn in a different way

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	7 alphabet	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 alphabet	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 alphabet	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 alphabet	det
6	Greek	Greek	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 alphabet	amod
7	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 alphabet	acl
9	in	in	ADP	_	12 way	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 way	det
11	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 way	amod
12	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 drawn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	it	the Greek alphabet					tree rules
2	draw	participle		the Greek alphabet not said here		a different way			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in way=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/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/t6/