Test 1 · ★★★ · Is there one proper English? The big arguments

Your nan goes "kids today are ruining English, it was perfect in my day." What's the fair answer?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: nan, kids, fair answer · What happens: go, ruin, be · To what, where: kids, English · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★★★ of lesson 20 «Is there one proper English? The big arguments» 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: Your nan goes "kids today are ruining English, it was perfect in my day."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 nan	nmod:poss
2	nan	nan	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 goes	nsubj
3	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 kids	punct
5	kids	kid	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 goes	obl
6	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 ruining	obl:unmarked
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 ruining	aux
8	ruining	ruin	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 kids	acl
9	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 ruining	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 perfect	punct
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 perfect	nsubj
12	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 perfect	cop
13	perfect	perfect	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 goes	parataxis
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 day	case
15	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 day	nmod:poss
16	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 perfect	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	13 perfect	punct
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 goes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	Your nan	kids			vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	ruin in a quote	present · progressive	kids not said here	English	today		vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent english=Patient
3	is in a quote	past	nan		day	perfect property	tree rules

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: What's the fair answer?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 answer	det
4	fair	fair	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 answer	amod
5	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the fair answer						tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

People have said that for centuries; English changes but keeps working

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	People	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 said	nsubj
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 said	aux
3	said	say	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	3 said	mark
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 centuries	case
6	centuries	century	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 said	obl
7	;	;	PUNCT	_	9 changes	punct
8	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 changes	nsubj
9	changes	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 said	parataxis
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	11 keeps	cc
11	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 changes	conj
12	working	work	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 keeps	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present · perfect	People	century	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	change	present	English		vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	keep	present	English not said here		tree rules
4	work	gerund	English not said here		vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

English has never changed, so it can't be ruined

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 changed	nsubj
2	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 changed	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 changed	advmod
4	changed	change	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 ruined	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	11 ruined	advmod
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 ruined	nsubj:pass
8	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 ruined	aux
9	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 ruined	advmod
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 ruined	aux:pass
11	ruined	ruin	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 changed	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present · perfect	English						vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not ruin	can · passive		it					vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3

She's right, and English was even more perfect in 1066

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 perfect	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 perfect	cc
6	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 perfect	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 perfect	cop
8	even	even	ADV	_	9 more	advmod
9	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	10 perfect	amod
10	perfect	perfect	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 right	conj
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 1066	case
12	1066	1066	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	10 perfect	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	She					right property	tree rules
2	is	past	English			1066		perfect property	tree rules

Option 4

She's right, English was perfect in her day and will soon stop working

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 perfect	punct
5	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 perfect	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 perfect	cop
7	perfect	perfect	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 right	conj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 day	case
9	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 day	nmod:poss
10	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 perfect	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 stop	cc
12	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 stop	aux
13	soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	14 stop	advmod
14	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 right	conj
15	working	work	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 stop	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	She		right property	tree rules
2	is	past	English	day	perfect property	tree rules
3	stop	future	She not said here		soon property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
4	work	gerund	She not said here			vn employment-95.3 «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/20-is-there-one-proper-english/t1/