Exam question 2 · Silent letters and the mystery of -ough

Identify the principal reason for which the letter "s" appears in the word "island".

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, letter · What happens: identify, appear · To what, where: principal reason, word

This is exam question 2 of lesson 13 «Silent letters and the mystery of -ough» of the language course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 appears	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 letter	det
8	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 appears	nsubj
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 s	punct
10	s	s	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 letter	appos
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 s	punct
12	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 word	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 word	det
15	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 appears	obl
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 island	punct
17	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 word	appos
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 island	punct
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	appear	present	the letter			the word		for the principal reason	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in word=Location

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 · ✓ the right answer

Scholars of the sixteenth century erroneously associated the word with "isle" and "insula"

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Scholars	scholar	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 associated	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 century	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 century	det
4	sixteenth	sixteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 century	amod
5	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Scholars	nmod
6	erroneously	erroneously	ADV	_	7 associated	advmod
7	associated	associate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 word	det
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 associated	obj
10	with	with	ADP	_	12 isle	case
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 isle	punct
12	isle	isle	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 word	nmod
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 isle	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 insula	cc
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 insula	punct
16	insula	insula	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 isle	conj
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 insula	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	associate	past	Scholars of the sixteenth century	the word				with isle and insula; erroneously property	vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent word=Patient with isle=Co-Patient

Option 2

The word is a compound of "is" and "land"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 compound	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 compound	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 compound	det
5	compound	compound	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	SCONJ	_	8 is	mark
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 is	punct
8	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 compound	acl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 is	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 land	cc
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 land	punct
12	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 compound	conj
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 land	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the word	a compound and land					tree rules
2	be in a quote	present	a compound and land not said here						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The letter denotes the plural number

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 letter	det
2	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 denotes	nsubj
3	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 number	det
5	plural	plural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 number	amod
6	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 denotes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	the letter	the plural number					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot number=Topic

Option 4

The letter was pronounced throughout the Old English period

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 letter	det
2	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pronounced	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 pronounced	aux:pass
4	pronounced	pronounce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	9 period	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 period	det
7	Old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 period	amod
8	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 period	compound
9	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pronounced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pronounce	past · passive		the letter			throughout the Old English period		vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/e2/