Test 5 · ★★★ · The King, the courts and the rules above the rules

What would happen if the most powerful person in a country could never be taken to court?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: happen, not take · To what, where: powerful person, court

This is test 5 · ★★★ of lesson 7 «The King, the courts and the rules above the rules» 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

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	_	15 taken	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 person	det
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 powerful	advmod
7	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 person	amod
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 taken	nsubj:pass
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 country	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 country	det
11	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 person	nmod
12	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 taken	aux
13	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	15 taken	advmod
14	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	15 taken	aux:pass
15	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
16	to	to	ADP	_	17 court	case
17	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 taken	obl
18	?	?	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	not take a condition, not said to happen	could · passive		the powerful person in a country		court			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to court=Destination

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

Courts would have more cases than ever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Courts	court	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 have	aux
3	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 cases	amod
5	cases	case	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	obj
6	than	than	ADP	_	7 ever	case
7	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	3 have	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	would	Courts	more cases					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent case=Patient

Option 2

Laws would become fairer for ordinary people

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Laws	law	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 become	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 become	aux
3	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	fairer	fair	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 become	xcomp
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 people	case
6	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 people	amod
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fairer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	Laws					fair property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3

Everyone else would follow the law much more carefully

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	4 follow	nsubj
2	else	else	ADV	_	1 Everyone	advmod
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 follow	aux
4	follow	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 law	det
6	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 follow	obj
7	much	much	ADV	_	8 more	advmod
8	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 carefully	advmod
9	carefully	carefully	ADV	_	4 follow	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	would	Everyone	the law				carefully property	vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent law=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They could break the law without anyone stopping them

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 break	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 break	aux
3	break	break	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 law	det
5	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 break	obj
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 anyone	case
7	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	3 break	obl
8	stopping	stop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 anyone	acl
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 stopping	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	could	They	the law				without anyone	vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer law=Patient
2	stop	gerund		them = they					vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality they=Eventuality

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/politics/7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules/t5/