Test 6 · Silent letters and the mystery of -ough
An American tourist says "Wor-ces-ter-shire" letter by letter. A local laughs. How do locals say it?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: American tourist, letter, locals · What happens: say, letter · To what, where: letter · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 6 of lesson 13 «Silent letters and the mystery of -ough» 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
Sentence 1: An American tourist says "Wor-ces-ter-shire" letter by letter.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 tourist | det |
| 2 | American | American | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 tourist | amod |
| 3 | tourist | tourist | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 says | nsubj |
| 4 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 Wor | punct |
| 6 | Wor | Wor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 letter | compound |
| 7 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 8 ces | punct |
| 8 | ces | ce | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 Wor | appos |
| 9 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 8 ces | punct |
| 10 | ter | ter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 shire | compound |
| 11 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 12 shire | punct |
| 12 | shire | shire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 Wor | appos |
| 13 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 shire | punct |
| 14 | letter | letter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 says | ccomp |
| 15 | by | by | ADP | _ | 16 letter | case |
| 16 | letter | letter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 letter | nmod |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 says | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | a American tourist | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | letter | letter | nom letter «communication transitive»: by=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.
Sentence 2: A local laughs.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 laughs | det |
| 2 | local | local | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 laughs | amod |
| 3 | laughs | laugh | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 4 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 laughs | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Sentence 3: How do locals say it?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 say | advmod |
| 2 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 say | aux |
| 3 | locals | local | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 say | nsubj |
| 4 | say | say | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 say | obj |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 say | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present · do-support | locals | letter | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
WUSS-ter-sher
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WUSS | wuss | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sher | compound |
| 2 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 1 WUSS | punct |
| 3 | ter | ter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sher | compound |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 3 ter | punct |
| 5 | sher | sher | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
War-chester-shire
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | War | war | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 chester | compound |
| 2 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 1 War | punct |
| 3 | chester | chester | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 shire | compound |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 5 shire | punct |
| 5 | shire | shire | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
WOR-kes-ter-shire
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WOR | WOR | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 1 WOR | punct |
| 3 | kes | ke | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 WOR | flat |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 1 WOR | punct |
| 5 | ter | ter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 shire | compound |
| 6 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 5 ter | punct |
| 7 | shire | shire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 WOR | list |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
WOR-sester-shire
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WOR | wor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 sester | compound |
| 2 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 1 WOR | punct |
| 3 | sester | sester | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 shire | compound |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 5 shire | punct |
| 5 | shire | shire | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/t6/