Test 3 · ★ · The politician's either-or and the straw man

What would happen in a debate if both sides had to repeat the other's idea fairly before answering it?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: sides · What happens: happen, have, repeat, answer · To what, where: debate, idea

This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 178 «The politician's either-or and the straw man» of the world 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	in	in	ADP	_	6 debate	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 debate	det
6	debate	debate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
7	if	if	SCONJ	_	10 had	mark
8	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	9 sides	det
9	sides	side	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 had	nsubj
10	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 repeat	mark
12	repeat	repeat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 had	xcomp
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 other	det
14	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 idea	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 other	case
16	idea	idea	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 repeat	obj
17	fairly	fairly	ADV	_	12 repeat	advmod
18	before	before	SCONJ	_	19 answering	mark
19	answering	answer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 repeat	advcl
20	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 answering	obj
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	happen	would			a debate		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in debate=Location
2	have a condition, not said to happen	past	both sides				tree rules
3	repeat	to-infinitive	both sides not said here	the other's idea		fairly property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent idea=Eventuality
4	answer speech: assert	gerund	both sides not said here	idea			vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=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.

The options

Option 1

Nobody would be allowed to disagree about anything any more

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 allowed	nsubj:pass
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 allowed	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 allowed	aux:pass
4	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 disagree	mark
6	disagree	disagree	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 allowed	xcomp
7	about	about	ADP	_	8 anything	case
8	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	6 disagree	obl
9	any	any	ADV	_	10 more	advmod
10	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 disagree	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	allow	would · passive		Nobody					vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
2	disagree not said to happen	to-infinitive	Nobody not said here					about anything	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V PP.theme S»: agent=Agent about anything=Topic

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They would argue about real ideas, not scarecrows

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 argue	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 argue	aux
3	argue	argue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	about	about	ADP	_	6 ideas	case
5	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 ideas	amod
6	ideas	idea	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 argue	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 scarecrows	punct
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 scarecrows	advmod
9	scarecrows	scarecrow	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 ideas	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	argue speech: disagree	would	They					about real ideas and scarecrows	vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.theme S»: agent=Agent about idea=Topic

Option 3

The same side would always win

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 side	det
2	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 side	amod
3	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 win	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 win	aux
5	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	6 win	advmod
6	win	win	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	win	would	the same side					always property	vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The debate would have to stop at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 debate	det
2	debate	debate	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 have	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 have	aux
4	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 stop	mark
6	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 have	xcomp
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 once	case
8	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	6 stop	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	would	the debate						tree rules
2	stop	to-infinitive	the debate not said here						vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at once=Location

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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