---
title: What would happen if English had an official academy that banned new… — Is there one proper English? The big a… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if English had an official academy that banned new words? Test 4 · ★★★ of lesson 20 «Is there one proper English? The big arguments» 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 right.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/t4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/) / [Is there one proper English? The big a…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/) / t4

# Test 4 · ★★★ · Is there one proper English? The big arguments

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if English had an official academy that banned new words?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** English, official academy · **What happens:** happen, have, ban · **To what, where:** official academy, new words

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 · ★★★ of lesson 20 «Is there one proper English? The big arguments» 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/20-is-there-one-proper-english/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:20-is-there-one-proper-english:t4:1
# text = What would happen if English had an official academy that banned new words?
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	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	official	official	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	academy	academy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	banned	ban	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	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 | a official academy |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent academy=Patient |
| 3 | **ban** | past | a official academy | new words |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer 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.

## The options {#options}

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
People would probably keep using new words anyway

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:20-is-there-one-proper-english:t4:o1:1
# text = People would probably keep using new words anyway
1	People	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	using	use	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	anyway	anyway	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | would | People |  |  |  |  | anyway, probably *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | gerund | People *not said here* | new words |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
English would turn into French overnight

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:20-is-there-one-proper-english:t4:o2:1
# text = English would turn into French overnight
1	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	French	French	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	overnight	overnight	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | English |  |  |  |  | into French *result*; overnight *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into french=Result |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nobody would ever say a new word again, not even once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:20-is-there-one-proper-english:t4:o3:1
# text = Nobody would ever say a new word again, not even once
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	again	again	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	even	even	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | would | Nobody | a new word |  |  | ever; again |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
All the old words would be banned too

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:20-is-there-one-proper-english:t4:o4:1
# text = All the old words would be banned too
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	4	det:predet	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	banned	ban	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	too	too	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ban** | would · passive |  | all old words |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Is there one proper English? The big a…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/t3/)
- next →: [Is there one proper English? The big a…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/t5/)
- ↑ back to [Is there one proper English? The big arguments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/)