Test 9 · Silent letters and the mystery of -ough

A boomer grandad from Cornwall, proper gurt keen on puzzles ("gurt" means very), asks: how many of "knee, wrist, lamb, water, bough" have a silent letter?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: gurt, boomer grandad, many · What happens: mean, ask, have · To what, where: silent letter · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 grandad	det
2	boomer	boomer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grandad	compound
3	grandad	grandad	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 asks	nsubj
4	from	from	ADP	_	5 Cornwall	case
5	Cornwall	Cornwall	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 grandad	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 keen	punct
7	proper	proper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 keen	amod
8	gurt	gurt	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 keen	amod
9	keen	keen	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grandad	conj
10	on	on	ADP	_	11 puzzles	case
11	puzzles	puzzle	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 keen	nmod
12	(	(	PUNCT	_	16 means	punct
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 gurt	punct
14	gurt	gurt	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 means	nsubj
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 gurt	punct
16	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 keen	parataxis
17	very	very	ADV	_	16 means	advmod
18	)	)	PUNCT	_	16 means	punct
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 grandad	punct
20	asks	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
21	:	:	PUNCT	_	20 asks	punct
22	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	23 many	advmod
23	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	36 have	nsubj
24	of	of	ADP	_	26 knee	case
25	"	"	PUNCT	_	26 knee	punct
26	knee	knee	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 many	nmod
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 wrist	punct
28	wrist	wrist	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 knee	conj
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 lamb	punct
30	lamb	lamb	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 knee	conj
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	32 water	punct
32	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 knee	conj
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 bough	punct
34	bough	bough	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 knee	conj
35	"	"	PUNCT	_	34 bough	punct
36	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 asks	ccomp
37	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	39 letter	det
38	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	39 letter	amod
39	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 have	obj
40	?	?	PUNCT	_	20 asks	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present	gurt		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	ask speech: ask	present	a boomer grandad from Cornwall and proper gurt keen on puzzles		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	have	present	many of knee and wrist and lamb and water and bough	a silent letter	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Patient

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

Four: knee, wrist, lamb, bough

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	3 knee	punct
3	knee	knee	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Four	appos
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 wrist	punct
5	wrist	wrist	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 knee	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 lamb	punct
7	lamb	lamb	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 knee	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 bough	punct
9	bough	bough	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 knee	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Three: knee, wrist, lamb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	3 knee	punct
3	knee	knee	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Three	appos
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 wrist	punct
5	wrist	wrist	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 knee	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 lamb	punct
7	lamb	lamb	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 knee	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Five: all of them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	3 all	punct
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Five	advmod
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 them	case
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 all	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Two: knee and lamb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	3 knee	punct
3	knee	knee	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Two	appos
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 lamb	cc
5	lamb	lamb	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 knee	conj

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/t9/