Test 10 · Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great…

What does it tell us that many wall-builders died?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: it, many wall builders · What happens: tell, die · To what, where: us · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 10 of lesson 9 «Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 tell	obj
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 tell	aux
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 tell	nsubj
4	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	4 tell	iobj
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 died	mark
7	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 builders	amod
8	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 builders	compound
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 wall	punct
10	builders	builder	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 died	nsubj
11	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 tell	advcl
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 tell	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	present · do-support	it		us				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient what=Topic
2	die	past	many wall builders						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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

Nobody was ever hurt

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 hurt	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 hurt	aux:pass
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 hurt	advmod
4	hurt	hurt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hurt	past · passive		Nobody			ever		vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The work was very hard and dangerous

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 work	det
2	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hard	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 hard	cop
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 hard	advmod
5	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 dangerous	cc
7	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 hard	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the work					hard property	tree rules
2	be		the work not said here						tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The builders were robots

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 builders	det
2	builders	builder	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 robots	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 robots	cop
4	robots	robot	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the builders	robots					tree rules

Option 4

The wall was built for fun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wall	det
2	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 built	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 built	aux:pass
4	built	build	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 fun	case
6	fun	fun	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 built	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	build	past · passive		the wall				for fun	vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: subject=Product for fun=Asset

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.

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