---
title: Dave reckons English is pure, never borrowed a word. What do you tel… — Britain and Ireland: a short story · tree and pragmatics
description: Dave reckons English is pure, never borrowed a word. What do you tell him? Test 2 of lesson 37 «Britain and Ireland: a short story» of the history course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was right.
---

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# Test 2 · Britain and Ireland: a short story

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Dave reckons English is pure, never borrowed a word. What do you tell him?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Dave, English, you · **What happens:** reckon, be, not borrow, tell · **To what, where:** word, English · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 2 of lesson 37 «Britain and Ireland: a short story» of the history 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Dave reckons English is pure, never borrowed a word.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t2:1
# text = Dave reckons English is pure, never borrowed a word.
1	Dave	Dave	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	reckons	reckon	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	pure	pure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	borrowed	borrow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reckon** | present | Dave |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | English |  |  |  |  | pure *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **borrow** | past |  | a word |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What do you tell him?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t2:2
# text = What do you tell him?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · do-support | you |  | English |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient what=Topic |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It is a mix of many languages, with thousands of French words

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t2:o1:1
# text = It is a mix of many languages, with thousands of French words
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	mix	mix	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	languages	language	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	French	French	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | It | a mix and thousands of French words |  |  |  | of many languages | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He's right, every single word is pure old Anglo-Saxon from long ago

<!-- fold The tree, 14 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t2:o2:1
# text = He's right, every single word is pure old Anglo-Saxon from long ago
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
6	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
9	pure	pure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
11	Anglo	Anglo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Saxon	Saxon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
16	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | He |  |  |  |  | ago, right *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | present | every single word | pure old Anglo Saxon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
English comes only from Latin

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t2:o3:1
# text = English comes only from Latin
1	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Latin	Latin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | present | English |  |  | Latin |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from latin=Initial\_Location |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
English was invented in 1900

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t2:o4:1
# text = English was invented in 1900
1	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	1900	1900	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **invent** | past · passive |  | English |  | 1900 |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |

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**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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