Exam question 2 · Swaps and barter in the playground

Identify the principal deficiency of barter as a means of trade.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, a · What happens: identify, mean · To what, where: principal deficiency

This is exam question 2 of lesson 4 «Swaps and barter in the playground» of the money 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 deficiency	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 deficiency	amod
4	deficiency	deficiency	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 barter	case
6	barter	barter	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deficiency	nmod
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 means	mark
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 means	nsubj
9	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	advcl
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 trade	case
11	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 means	obl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal deficiency of barter					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent deficiency=Theme
2	mean	present	a					of trade	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: 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 · ← Mova's choice

Goods exchanged by barter invariably lose their value

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Goods	goods	NOUN	Number=Ptan	6 lose	nsubj
2	exchanged	exchange	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Goods	acl
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 barter	case
4	barter	barter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exchanged	obl
5	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	6 lose	advmod
6	lose	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 value	nmod:poss
8	value	value	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lose	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	exchange	participle		Goods not said here	by barter	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	lose	present	Goods	Goods's value	invariably property	vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent value=Eventuality
3	value		Goods			nom value «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

Barter is forbidden by law in all jurisdictions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Barter	Barter	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 forbidden	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 forbidden	aux:pass
3	forbidden	forbid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 law	case
5	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forbidden	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 jurisdictions	case
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	8 jurisdictions	det
8	jurisdictions	jurisdiction	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 forbidden	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forbid	present · passive	law	Barter		all jurisdictions			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Each party must possess precisely what the other desires

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 party	det
2	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 possess	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 possess	aux
4	possess	possess	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	precisely	precisely	ADV	_	6 what	advmod
6	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 possess	obj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 desires	det
8	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 desires	amod
9	desires	desire	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 what	nsubj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	must	each party						vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme

Option 4

Barter requires the involvement of a bank

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Barter	Barter	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 requires	nsubj
2	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 involvement	det
4	involvement	involvement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 requires	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 bank	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bank	det
7	bank	bank	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 involvement	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	Barter	the involvement of a bank					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme involvement=Precondition
2	involve			a bank					nom involvement «act transitive»: of=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/money/4-swaps-and-barter-in-the-playground/e2/