Exam question 4 · Andersen's Tales, The Travelling Companion, part 218: John…

Explain why the queen requested that the ointment be applied to her husband and courtiers.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, queen · What happens: explain, request, apply · To what, where: ointment · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1007 «Andersen's Tales, The Travelling Companion, part 218: John pays for a dead man's rest, then the salve mends a broken doll» of the books 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 requested	advmod
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 queen	det
4	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 requested	nsubj
5	requested	request	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Explain	ccomp
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 applied	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 ointment	det
8	ointment	ointment	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 applied	nsubj:pass
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 applied	aux:pass
10	applied	apply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 requested	advcl
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 husband	case
12	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 husband	nmod:poss
13	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 applied	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 courtiers	cc
15	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 husband	conj
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	request	past	the queen			vn beg-58.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent
3	apply	infinitive · passive		the ointment	to queen's husband and courtiers	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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

so they could sing and dance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	so	so	ADV	_	4 sing	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 sing	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 sing	aux
4	sing	sing	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 dance	cc
6	dance	dance	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 sing	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sing speech: express	could	they						vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	dance	infinitive	they not said here						vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

so they might move of themselves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	so	so	ADV	_	4 move	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 move	nsubj
3	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 move	aux
4	move	move	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 themselves	case
6	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 move	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	move	might	they					of themselves = they	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme of themselves=Trajectory

Option 3

so they might move of themselves about the house

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	so	so	ADV	_	4 move	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 move	nsubj
3	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 move	aux
4	move	move	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 themselves	case
6	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 move	obl
7	about	about	ADP	_	9 house	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 house	det
9	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 move	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	move	might	they					of themselves = they; about the house	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme of themselves=Source about house=Trajectory

Option 4

because she was afraid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	because	because	SCONJ	_	4 afraid	mark
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 afraid	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 afraid	cop
4	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	she					afraid property	tree rules

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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