Test 5 · ★★ · Grammar puzzles, part one

What would happen if we wrote lists with no commas at all?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: we · What happens: happen, write · To what, where: lists

This is test 5 · ★★ of lesson 11 «Grammar puzzles, part one» of the language 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	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 wrote	mark
5	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 wrote	nsubj
6	wrote	write	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	lists	list	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 wrote	obj
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 commas	case
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 commas	det
10	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 wrote	obl
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 all	case
12	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 commas	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	write a condition, not said to happen	past	we	lists				with no commas at all	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent list=Theme

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

Every list would become a question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	2 list	det
2	list	list	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 become	aux
4	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 question	det
6	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	every list	a question					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 2

Lists would become longer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lists	list	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 become	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 become	aux
3	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 become	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	Lists					long property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Some lists would accidentally say odd things, like cooking your dog

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	2 lists	det
2	lists	list	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 say	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 say	aux
4	accidentally	accidentally	ADV	_	5 say	advmod
5	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	odd	odd	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 things	amod
7	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 say	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 cooking	punct
9	like	like	ADP	_	10 cooking	case
10	cooking	cook	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 say	advcl
11	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 dog	nmod:poss
12	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 cooking	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	some lists	odd things				accidentally property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic
2	cook	gerund	some lists not said here	your dog					vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent dog=Patient

Option 4

Nothing, because commas never change what a sentence means

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 change	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 change	mark
4	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 change	nsubj
5	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	6 change	advmod
6	change	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	conj
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	10 means	obj
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 sentence	det
9	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 means	nsubj
10	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 change	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present	commas						tree rules
2	mean	present	a sentence						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=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/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/t5/