Test 8 · ★★ · How writing began: from tally marks and pictures to the al…

Why could Kipling's Tegumai not really have written letters in Stone Age Surrey?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: not write · To what, where: letters

This is test 8 · ★★ 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	9 written	advmod
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 written	aux
3	Kipling	Kipling	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Tegumai	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 Kipling	case
5	Tegumai	Tegumai	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 could	obj
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 written	advmod
7	really	really	ADV	_	9 written	advmod
8	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 written	aux
9	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
10	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 written	obl
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 Age	case
12	Stone	Stone	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Age	compound
13	Age	Age	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 written	obl:agent
14	Surrey	Surrey	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Age	flat
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 written	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not write	could · perfect		letters					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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 · ✓ the right answer

Writing reached Britain only with the Romans, thousands of years later

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reached	nsubj
2	reached	reach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Britain	Britain	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 reached	obj
4	only	only	ADV	_	7 Romans	advmod
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 Romans	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Romans	det
7	Romans	Roman	PROPN	Number=Plur	2 reached	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 thousands	punct
9	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 reached	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 years	case
11	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 thousands	nmod
12	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	2 reached	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reach	past	Writing	Britain				with the Romans; thousands of years obl; late property	vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent britain=Theme

Option 2

There was no birch-bark anywhere in Stone Age Britain then

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	2 was	expl
2	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 bark	det
4	birch	birch	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 bark	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 birch	punct
6	bark	bark	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 was	nsubj
7	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	PronType=Ind	6 bark	advmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 Age	case
9	Stone	Stone	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Age	compound
10	Age	Age	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 bark	nmod
11	Britain	Britain	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Age	flat
12	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	2 was	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	past	no birch bark in Stone Age			there	then		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

It always rained too hard to write outside

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	3 rained	nsubj
2	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	3 rained	advmod
3	rained	rain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 hard	advmod
5	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 rained	xcomp
6	to	to	PART	_	7 write	mark
7	write	write	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 hard	xcomp
8	outside	outside	ADV	_	7 write	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rain	past	It					always, hard property	vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme»
2	write	to-infinitive						outside property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Stone Age people were not clever enough to learn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stone	Stone	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 Age	compound
2	Age	Age	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 people	compound
3	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 clever	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 clever	cop
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 clever	advmod
6	clever	clever	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	enough	enough	ADV	_	6 clever	advmod
8	to	to	PART	_	9 learn	mark
9	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 clever	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	past	Age people					clever, enough property	tree rules
2	learn	to-infinitive	Age people not said here						vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: 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/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/t8/