Test 3 · ★ · How babies learn to talk

What would happen if a child only ever copied words they heard, and never worked out rules?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: child · What happens: happen, copy, hear, not work out · To what, where: rules · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 31 «How babies learn to talk» 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	_	12 heard	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 child	det
6	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 heard	nsubj
7	only	only	ADV	_	10 words	advmod
8	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	10 words	advmod
9	copied	copy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 words	amod
10	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 child	nmod
11	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 heard	nsubj
12	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 worked	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 worked	cc
15	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	16 worked	advmod
16	worked	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 heard	ccomp
17	out	out	ADP	_	16 worked	compound:prt
18	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 worked	obj
19	?	?	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	copy	participle			vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	hear a condition, not said to happen	past	a child copied words		vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
4	not work out	past		rules	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rule=Topic

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

They would talk earlier

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 talk	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 talk	aux
3	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	earlier	early	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 talk	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	would	They					early property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They could never say "wugs" about a new creature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 say	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 say	advmod
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 wugs	punct
6	wugs	wug	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 say	obj
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 wugs	punct
8	about	about	ADP	_	11 creature	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 creature	det
10	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 creature	amod
11	creature	creature	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 say	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not say speech: assert	could	They	wugs				about a new creature	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent wug=Topic

Option 3

They would speak perfectly at once, without a single mistake

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 speak	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 speak	aux
3	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	_	3 speak	advmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 once	case
6	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	3 speak	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 mistake	punct
8	without	without	ADP	_	11 mistake	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 mistake	det
10	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 mistake	amod
11	mistake	mistake	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 speak	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	would	They					perfectly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

They would only speak in rules

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 speak	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 speak	aux
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 speak	advmod
4	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 rules	case
6	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 speak	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	would	They			rules			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/t3/