Test 4 · Keeping promises

What would happen if nobody's promises could be relied on?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nobody · What happens: happen, rely on, promise · To what, where: promises

This is test 4 of lesson 86 «Keeping promises» of the religion ethics 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	_	10 relied	mark
5	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	7 promises	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 nobody	case
7	promises	promise	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 relied	nsubj:pass
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 relied	aux
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 relied	aux:pass
10	relied	rely	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
11	on	on	ADP	_	10 relied	compound:prt
12	?	?	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	rely on a condition, not said to happen	could · passive		nobody's promises	tree rules
3	promise		nobody		nom promise «communication transitive»: poss=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 · ✓ the right answer

Nobody could plan anything, like matches, play dates or teams

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 plan	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 plan	aux
3	plan	plan	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	3 plan	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 matches	punct
6	like	like	ADP	_	7 matches	case
7	matches	match	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 plan	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 dates	punct
9	play	play	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 dates	compound
10	dates	date	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 matches	conj
11	or	or	CCONJ	_	12 teams	cc
12	teams	team	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 matches	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	plan	could	Nobody	anything				like matches and play dates or teams	vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Topic

Option 2

Life would be more exciting, because nobody would know what comes next

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 exciting	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 exciting	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 exciting	cop
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 exciting	advmod
5	exciting	exciting	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 know	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	10 know	mark
8	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	10 know	nsubj
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 know	aux
10	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 exciting	conj
11	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	12 comes	nsubj
12	comes	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 know	ccomp
13	next	next	ADV	_	12 comes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	would	Life	exciting property	tree rules
2	know	would	nobody		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
3	come	present		next property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Nothing; promises don't really matter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 promises	compound
2	;	;	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	promises	promise	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 matter	nsubj
4	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 matter	aux
5	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 matter	advmod
6	really	really	ADV	_	7 matter	advmod
7	matter	matter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not matter	present · do-support	Nothing promises						vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

People would make more promises than ever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	would	People	more promises					vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent promise=Product

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/religion-ethics/86-keeping-promises/t4/