Exam question 4 · British and American words

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the spellings "colour" and "color".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, spellings

This is exam question 4 of lesson 21 «British and American words» of the language course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 spellings	det
11	spellings	spelling	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 concerning	obj
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 colour	punct
13	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 spellings	appos
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 colour	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 color	cc
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 color	punct
17	color	color	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 colour	conj
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 color	punct
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the spellings		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus spelling=Experiencer

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

"Color" is the sole correct form worldwide since 1828

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Color	punct
2	Color	color	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 form	nsubj
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Color	punct
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 form	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 form	det
6	sole	sole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 form	amod
7	correct	correct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 form	amod
8	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	worldwide	worldwide	ADV	_	8 form	advmod
10	since	since	ADP	_	11 1828	case
11	1828	1828	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	8 form	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Color	the sole correct form			since 1828	worldwide property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Each is the accepted form within its respective country

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	5 form	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 form	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 form	det
4	accepted	accept	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 form	amod
5	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	within	within	ADP	_	9 country	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 country	nmod:poss
8	respective	respective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 country	amod
9	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 form	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accept	participle							vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	Each	the accepted form				within form's respective country	tree rules

Option 3

Neither appears in any dictionary

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Neither	neither	DET	PronType=Neg	2 appears	nsubj
2	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 dictionary	case
4	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	5 dictionary	det
5	dictionary	dictionary	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 appears	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	appear	present	Neither			any dictionary			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in dictionary=Location

Option 4

"Colour" was abolished by Noah Webster's dictionary of 1828

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Colour	punct
2	Colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 abolished	nsubj:pass
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Colour	punct
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 abolished	aux:pass
5	abolished	abolish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	10 dictionary	case
7	Noah	Noah	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Webster	compound
8	Webster	webster	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 dictionary	compound
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Webster	case
10	dictionary	dictionary	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 abolished	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 1828	case
12	1828	1828	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	10 dictionary	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	abolish	past · passive	Webster dictionary of 1828	Colour					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent 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/21-british-and-american-words/e4/