Test 4 · ★★★ · Is there one proper English? The big arguments

What would happen if English had an official academy that banned new words?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: English, official academy · What happens: happen, have, ban · To what, where: official academy, new words

This is test 4 · ★★★ 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

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 had	mark
5	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 had	nsubj
6	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 academy	det
8	official	official	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 academy	amod
9	academy	academy	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 had	obj
10	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 banned	nsubj
11	banned	ban	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 academy	acl:relcl
12	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 words	amod
13	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 banned	obj
14	?	?	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	have a condition, not said to happen	past	English	a official academy	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent academy=Patient
3	ban	past	a official academy	new words	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer word=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 · ✓ the right answer

People would probably keep using new words anyway

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	People	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 keep	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 keep	aux
3	probably	probably	ADV	_	4 keep	advmod
4	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	using	use	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 keep	xcomp
6	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 words	amod
7	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 using	obj
8	anyway	anyway	ADV	_	4 keep	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	would	People					anyway, probably property	tree rules
2	use	gerund	People not said here	new words					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient

Option 2

English would turn into French overnight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	aux
3	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	5 French	case
5	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl
6	overnight	overnight	ADV	_	3 turn	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	English					into French result; overnight property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into french=Result

Option 3

Nobody would ever say a new word again, not even once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 say	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 say	advmod
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 word	det
6	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 word	amod
7	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 say	obj
8	again	again	ADV	_	4 say	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 once	punct
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 once	advmod
11	even	even	ADV	_	12 once	advmod
12	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	4 say	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	Nobody	a new word			ever; again		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic

Option 4

All the old words would be banned too

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 words	det:predet
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 words	det
3	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 words	amod
4	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 banned	nsubj:pass
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 banned	aux
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 banned	aux:pass
7	banned	ban	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	too	too	ADV	_	7 banned	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ban	would · passive		all old words					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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/t4/