Test 3 · ★ · Where English came from

What would happen if you went back 1,000 years and chatted to an English farmer?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: happen, go back, chat

This is test 3 · ★ 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	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 went	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 went	nsubj
6	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	back	back	ADV	_	8 1,000	advmod
8	1,000	1000	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	9 years	nummod
9	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 went	obl:unmarked
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 chatted	cc
11	chatted	chat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 went	conj
12	to	to	ADP	_	15 farmer	case
13	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 farmer	det
14	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 farmer	amod
15	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 chatted	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	go back a condition, not said to happen	past	you	year		vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient
3	chat speech: other	participle	you not said here		to a English farmer	vn chit_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=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.

The options

Option 1

You would both speak modern English with no trouble

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 speak	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 speak	aux
3	both	both	ADV	_	4 speak	advmod
4	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	modern	modern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 English	amod
6	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 speak	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 trouble	case
8	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 trouble	det
9	trouble	trouble	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 speak	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	would	You	modern English				with no trouble; both property	tree rules

Option 2

He would only use sign language

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 use	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 use	aux
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 use	advmod
4	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 language	compound
6	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 use	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	would	He	sign language					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent language=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

You would understand every single word he said

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 understand	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 understand	aux
3	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 word	det
5	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 word	amod
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 understand	obj
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 said	nsubj
8	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 word	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand	would	You	every single word					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus
2	say speech: assert	past	he	every single word not said here					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

You would struggle to understand each other

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 struggle	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 struggle	aux
3	struggle	struggle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 understand	mark
5	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 struggle	xcomp
6	each	each	DET	ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp	5 understand	obj
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 each	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	struggle	would	You						tree rules
2	understand	to-infinitive	You not said here	each					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer each=Stimulus

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/22-where-english-came-from/t3/