Test 7 · Why wars happen and why they are hard to stop; the UN and…

Someone snaps: «shut up about talks, they just smile for the cameras and do nothing.» What is fair?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Someone, talks · What happens: snap, shut up, smile, do, be · To what, where: nothing · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 7 of lesson 23 «Why wars happen and why they are hard to stop; the UN and NATO» of the politics 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

Sentence 1: Someone snaps: «shut up about talks, they just smile for the cameras and do nothing.»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	2 snaps	nsubj
2	snaps	snap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	:	:	PUNCT	_	5 shut	punct
4	«	«	PUNCT	_	5 shut	punct
5	shut	shut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 snaps	ccomp
6	up	up	ADP	_	5 shut	compound:prt
7	about	about	ADP	_	8 talks	case
8	talks	talk	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 shut	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 smile	punct
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 smile	nsubj
11	just	just	ADV	_	12 smile	advmod
12	smile	smile	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 shut	conj
13	for	for	ADP	_	15 cameras	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 cameras	det
15	cameras	camera	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 smile	obl
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 do	cc
17	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 smile	conj
18	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	17 do	obj
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 snaps	punct
20	»	»	PUNCT	_	2 snaps	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	snap	present	Someone			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	shut up in a quote	infinitive	Someone not said here		about talks	vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	smile in a quote	present	talks = talk		for the cameras	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S_INF»: agent=Agent for camera=Recipient
4	do in a quote	present	talks = talk not said here	nothing		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality

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.

Sentence 2: What is fair?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 fair	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 fair	cop
3	fair	fair	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 fair	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						fair property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Talks have never ended any war in history, so they are pointless

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Talks	talk	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 ended	nsubj:pass
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ended	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 ended	advmod
4	ended	end	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 war	det
6	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ended	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 history	case
8	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 war	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 pointless	punct
10	so	so	ADV	_	13 pointless	advmod
11	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 pointless	nsubj
12	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 pointless	cop
13	pointless	pointless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 ended	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not end	present · perfect · passive		Talks					tree rules
2	is	present	Talks = talk					pointless property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Talks are slow and often fail, but they are how wars are usually ended

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Talks	talk	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 slow	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 slow	cop
3	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 fail	cc
5	often	often	ADV	_	6 fail	advmod
6	fail	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 slow	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 ended	punct
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	15 ended	cc
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 ended	nsubj
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 ended	cop
11	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	15 ended	advmod
12	wars	war	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 ended	nsubj
13	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 ended	cop
14	usually	usually	ADV	_	15 ended	advmod
15	ended	ended	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 slow	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	Talks	slow property	tree rules
2	fail	present	Talks not said here	often property	vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	present	Talks = talk	ended, usually property	tree rules

Option 3

Leaders only ever smile when they have won

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Leaders	leader	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 smile	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	4 smile	advmod
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 smile	advmod
4	smile	smile	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	when	when	SCONJ	_	8 won	mark
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 won	nsubj
7	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 won	aux
8	won	win	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 smile	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	smile	infinitive	Leaders				ever		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	win	present · perfect	Leaders = leader						vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Talks always fix a war in one day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Talks	talk	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fix	nsubj
2	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	3 fix	advmod
3	fix	fix	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 war	det
5	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fix	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 day	case
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 day	nummod
8	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fix	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fix	present	Talks	a war			day	always property	vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent war=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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