Exam question 4 · Modern art: "my little brother could do that"

Ascertain the meaning attributed by Louise Bourgeois to her spider sculptures entitled Maman.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, spider sculptures · What happens: ascertain, attribute, entitle · To what, where: meaning, Maman

This is exam question 4 of lesson 18 «Modern art: "my little brother could do that"» of the arts course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	attributed	attribute	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 meaning	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 Louise	case
6	Louise	Louise	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 attributed	obl:agent
7	Bourgeois	Bourgeois	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Louise	flat
8	to	to	SCONJ	_	12 entitled	mark
9	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 sculptures	nmod:poss
10	spider	spider	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 sculptures	compound
11	sculptures	sculpture	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 entitled	nsubj
12	entitled	entitle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 attributed	advcl
13	Maman	Maman	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 entitled	obj
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	attribute	participle		the meaning not said here	tree rules
3	entitle	past	Louise's spider sculptures	Maman	tree rules

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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Her mother, patient and protective in the manner of a spider spinning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mother	nmod:poss
2	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 patient	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 patient	punct
4	patient	patient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 protective	cc
6	protective	protective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 patient	conj
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 manner	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 manner	det
9	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 patient	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 spider	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 spider	det
12	spider	spider	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 manner	nmod
13	spinning	spin	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 patient	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spin	gerund							vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

A monster encountered in a nightmare of her childhood, which she wished to forget

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 monster	det
2	monster	monster	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 wished	nsubj
3	encountered	encounter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 monster	acl
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 nightmare	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 nightmare	det
6	nightmare	nightmare	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 encountered	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 childhood	case
8	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 childhood	nmod:poss
9	childhood	childhood	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 nightmare	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 wished	punct
11	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 wished	nsubj
12	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 wished	nsubj
13	wished	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	to	to	PART	_	15 forget	mark
15	forget	forget	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 wished	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	encounter	participle		a monster not said here	a nightmare of monster's childhood	vn encounter-30.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer
2	wish	past	a monster			vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	forget not said to happen	to-infinitive	a monster not said here			tree rules

Option 3

No meaning whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 meaning	det
2	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 meaning	advmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

A warning concerning venomous spiders

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 warning	det
2	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 warning	acl
4	venomous	venomous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 spiders	amod
5	spiders	spider	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 concerning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	concern	gerund	a warning not said here	venomous spiders					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus spider=Experiencer

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/arts/18-modern-art-my-little-brother-could-do-that/e4/