Test 3 · Slang and how it changes with every generation

What would happen if no new slang were ever made?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · What happens: happen, make · To what, where: new slang

This is test 3 of lesson 17 «Slang and how it changes with every generation» 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	_	10 made	mark
5	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 slang	det
6	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 slang	amod
7	slang	slang	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 made	nsubj:pass
8	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 made	aux:pass
9	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	10 made	advmod
10	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
11	?	?	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	make a condition, not said to happen	past · passive		no new slang			ever		vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product

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

Language would change more slowly and lose one of its playful sides

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 change	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 change	aux
3	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 slowly	advmod
5	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	3 change	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 lose	cc
7	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 change	conj
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 lose	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	12 sides	case
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 sides	nmod:poss
11	playful	playful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 sides	amod
12	sides	side	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 one	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	would	Language					slowly property	vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	lose	infinitive	Language not said here	one of Language's playful sides					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Eventuality

Option 2

Nothing at all, because slang has never changed English

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 all	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Nothing	nmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 changed	punct
5	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 changed	mark
6	slang	slang	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 changed	nsubj:pass
7	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 changed	aux
8	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	9 changed	advmod
9	changed	change	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Nothing	conj
10	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 changed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present · perfect · passive		slang					tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

All the old slang would become illegal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 slang	det:predet
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 slang	det
3	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 slang	amod
4	slang	slang	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 become	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 become	aux
6	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	illegal	illegal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 become	xcomp

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

Option 4

Everyone would forget how to talk within a year

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	3 forget	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 forget	aux
3	forget	forget	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	6 talk	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	6 talk	mark
6	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 forget	ccomp
7	within	within	ADP	_	9 year	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 year	det
9	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 talk	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forget	would	Everyone						tree rules
2	not talk	to-infinitive					year		vn talk-37.5 «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/17-slang-and-how-it-changes-with-every-generation/t3/