Test 9 · Money's history: shells, coins, paper, cards, phones

What would happen if every coin had a different weight and no number on it?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: coin · What happens: happen, have · To what, where: different weight

This is test 9 of lesson 5 «Money's history: shells, coins, paper, cards, phones» of the money 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	_	7 had	mark
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 coin	det
6	coin	coin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 had	nsubj
7	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 weight	det
9	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 weight	amod
10	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 had	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 number	cc
12	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	13 number	det
13	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 weight	conj
14	on	on	ADP	_	15 it	case
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 number	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	have a condition, not said to happen	past	every coin	a different weight and no number on number					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent weight=Patient

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

Shopping would be much faster, because nobody would need to count

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shopping	shopping	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 faster	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 faster	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 faster	cop
4	much	much	ADV	_	5 faster	advmod
5	faster	fast	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 need	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	10 need	mark
8	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	10 need	nsubj
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 need	aux
10	need	need	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 faster	advcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 count	mark
12	count	count	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 need	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	would	Shopping	fast property	tree rules
2	need	would	nobody		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	count not said to happen	to-infinitive	nobody not said here		vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 2

Nothing would change, because coins are never checked by anyone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 change	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 change	aux
3	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 checked	punct
5	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 checked	mark
6	coins	coin	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 checked	nsubj:pass
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 checked	aux:pass
8	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	9 checked	advmod
9	checked	check	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 change	parataxis
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 anyone	case
11	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	9 checked	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	would	Nothing						vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not check	present · passive	anyone	coins					vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Prices would become free, since coins would have no fixed value

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Prices	price	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 become	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 become	aux
3	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 become	xcomp
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 have	punct
6	since	since	SCONJ	_	9 have	mark
7	coins	coin	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 have	nsubj
8	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 have	aux
9	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 become	conj
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	12 value	det
11	fixed	fix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 value	amod
12	value	value	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	become	would	Prices		free property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	have	would	coins	no fixed value		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent value=Patient
3	fix	participle				vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

People would have to weigh and argue over each coin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	People	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 have	aux
3	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 weigh	mark
5	weigh	weigh	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 have	xcomp
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 argue	cc
7	argue	argue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 weigh	conj
8	over	over	ADP	_	10 coin	case
9	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	10 coin	det
10	coin	coin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 argue	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	have	would	People		tree rules
2	weigh	to-infinitive	People not said here		vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme
3	argue speech: disagree	infinitive	People not said here	over each coin	vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.theme NP S_ING»: agent=Agent over coin=Theme

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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