Test 6 · British and American words
Your teacher in Leeds marks "color" wrong in your British essay. Is the teacher being unfair?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: your · What happens: essay, be · To what, where: teacher
This is test 6 of lesson 21 «British and American words» 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 teacher in Leeds marks "color" wrong in your British essay.
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 teacher | nmod:poss |
| 2 | teacher | teacher | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 marks | case |
| 4 | Leeds | Leeds | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 marks | compound |
| 5 | marks | mark | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 teacher | nmod |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 color | punct |
| 7 | color | color | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 marks | conj |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 color | punct |
| 9 | wrong | wrong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 color | amod |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 13 essay | case |
| 11 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 essay | nmod:poss |
| 12 | British | British | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 essay | amod |
| 13 | essay | essay | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 wrong | obl |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 teacher | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | essay | your | nom essay «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
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: Is the teacher being unfair?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 teacher | cop |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 teacher | det |
| 3 | teacher | teacher | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 unfair | csubj |
| 4 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 unfair | cop |
| 5 | unfair | unfair | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 unfair | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | the teacher | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | is | gerund | unfair property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Yes, American spelling is newer and so always better
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 6 newer | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | American | American | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 spelling | amod |
| 4 | spelling | spelling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 newer | nsubj |
| 5 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 newer | cop |
| 6 | newer | new | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 better | cc |
| 8 | so | so | ADV | _ | 10 better | advmod |
| 9 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 10 better | advmod |
| 10 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 6 newer | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | American spelling | new property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | be | American spelling not said here | always property | tree rules |
Option 2
Yes, spelling never matters as long as people understand
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 5 matters | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | spelling | spelling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 matters | nsubj |
| 4 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 5 matters | advmod |
| 5 | matters | matter | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | as | as | ADV | _ | 7 long | advmod |
| 7 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 5 matters | advmod |
| 8 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 10 understand | mark |
| 9 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 understand | nsubj |
| 10 | understand | understand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 long | advcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not matter | present | spelling | long property | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus | ||||
| 2 | understand | present | people | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
Option 3
No, because "color" is wrong everywhere
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 8 wrong | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 wrong | punct |
| 3 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 8 wrong | mark |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 color | punct |
| 5 | color | color | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 wrong | nsubj |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 color | punct |
| 7 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 wrong | cop |
| 8 | wrong | wrong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 9 | everywhere | everywhere | ADV | PronType=Tot | 8 wrong | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | color | everywhere, wrong property | tree rules |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
No, in a British essay use British spelling
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 7 use | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 use | punct |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 6 essay | case |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 essay | det |
| 5 | British | British | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 essay | amod |
| 6 | essay | essay | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 use | obl |
| 7 | use | use | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | British | British | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 spelling | amod |
| 9 | spelling | spelling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 use | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | use | imperative | you not said here | British spelling | a British essay | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spelling=Patient |
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/t6/