Test 11 · ★ · Where English came from

What would English be like if the Normans had never come?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Normans · What happens: not come

This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 22 «Where English came from» 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	root	root
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 like	aux
3	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 like	nsubj
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 like	cop
5	like	like	ADP	_	1 What	case
6	if	if	SCONJ	_	11 come	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Normans	det
8	Normans	Norman	PROPN	Number=Plur	11 come	nsubj
9	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 come	aux
10	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	11 come	advmod
11	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 like	xcomp
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not come	past	the Normans						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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

It would be French

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 French	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 French	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 French	cop
4	French	French	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	It					french property	tree rules

Option 2

It would have no words at all for food, law or kings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 have	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 have	aux
3	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 words	det
5	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 all	case
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 have	obl
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 food	case
9	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 have	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 law	punct
11	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 food	conj
12	or	or	CCONJ	_	13 kings	cc
13	kings	king	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 food	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	would	It	no words		all		for food and law or kings	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient

Option 3

It would be exactly the same as it is today, word for word

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 same	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 same	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 same	cop
4	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	6 same	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 same	det
6	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	as	as	ADP	_	12 word	case
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 word	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 word	cop
10	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 word	compound
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 word	punct
12	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 same	obl
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 word	case
14	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 word	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	It					exactly, same property	tree rules
2	is	present	it					as today word; for word	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It would probably have far fewer French words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 have	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 have	aux
3	probably	probably	ADV	_	4 have	advmod
4	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 fewer	advmod
6	fewer	few	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 words	amod
7	French	French	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 words	amod
8	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	would	It	fewer French words				probably property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=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.

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