---
title: What would happen if English had no word-order rules at all? — What language is: sounds, words and ru… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if English had no word-order rules at all? Test 3 of lesson 1 «What language is: sounds, words and rules everyone shares» of the language course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 3 · What language is: sounds, words and rules everyone shares

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if English had no word-order rules at all?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** English · **What happens:** happen, have · **To what, where:** order rules, all

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This is test 3 of lesson 1 «What language is: sounds, words and rules everyone shares» of the language 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/language/1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules/#t3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules:t3:1
# text = What would happen if English had no word-order rules at all?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
7	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
8	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	rules	rule	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | English | no order rules |  | all |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rule=Patient |

<!-- .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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only poems would stop making sense

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules:t3:o1:1
# text = Only poems would stop making sense
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	poems	poem	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	making	make	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | would | poems |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **make** | gerund | poems *not said here* | sense |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sense=Product |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only poems and songs would stop making any sense at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules:t3:o2:1
# text = Only poems and songs would stop making any sense at all
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	poems	poem	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	making	make	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	xcomp	_	_
8	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
9	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | would | poems and songs |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **make** | gerund | poems and songs *not said here* | any sense |  | all |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sense=Product |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
You often couldn't tell who did what to whom

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules:t3:o3:1
# text = You often couldn't tell who did what to whom
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	often	often	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | You |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, meaning never depends on order

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules:t3:o4:1
# text = Nothing, meaning never depends on order
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	meaning	mean	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	1	acl	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	depends	depend	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **depend** | present | Nothing |  |  |  |  | on order | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent on order=Theme |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

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