Test 3 · ★ · The apostrophe war

What would happen if we stopped using apostrophes for belonging?

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

This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 15 «The apostrophe war» 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 stopped	mark
5	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 stopped	nsubj
6	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	using	use	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 stopped	xcomp
8	apostrophes	apostrophe	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 using	obj
9	for	for	ADP	_	10 belonging	case
10	belonging	belong	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 using	obl
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	happen	would			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	stop a condition, not said to happen	past	we		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	use	gerund	we not said here	apostrophes	vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent apostrophe=Patient
4	belong	gerund			vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=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 plural would need one

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	2 plural	det
2	plural	plural	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 need	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 need	aux
4	need	need	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 need	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	would	every plural	one					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot one=Theme

Option 2

Names would lose their capitals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Names	name	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lose	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 lose	aux
3	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 capitals	nmod:poss
5	capitals	capital	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lose	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	would	Names	Names's capitals					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent capital=Eventuality

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

"The dog's bowl" and "the dogs' bowl" would look the same

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 bowl	punct
2	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dog	det
3	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bowl	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 dog	case
5	bowl	bowl	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 look	nsubj
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 bowl	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 bowl	cc
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 bowl	punct
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 dogs	det
10	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 bowl	nmod:poss
11	'	's	PART	_	10 dogs	case
12	bowl	bowl	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bowl	conj
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 bowl	punct
14	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 look	aux
15	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 same	det
17	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 look	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	would	the dog's bowl and the dogs's bowl	the same					vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme same=Attribute

Option 4

Nothing at all would change

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 change	nsubj
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 all	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Nothing	nmod
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 change	aux
5	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	would	Nothing						vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/15-the-apostrophe-war/t3/