Exam question 2 · Andersen's Tales, Waldemar Daa and His Daughters, part 239…

Explain why the admiral praised the black horses in the stable.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, admiral · What happens: explain, praise · To what, where: black horses, stable · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1028 «Andersen's Tales, Waldemar Daa and His Daughters, part 239: the forest is felled, the ship is never sold, and the gold-making ends in smoke» 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 praised	advmod
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 admiral	det
4	admiral	admiral	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 praised	nsubj
5	praised	praise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Explain	ccomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 horses	det
7	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 horses	amod
8	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 praised	obj
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 stable	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 stable	det
11	stable	stable	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 praised	obl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	praise	past	the admiral	the black horses		the stable			vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=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

He was hinting at a deal.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 hinting	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 hinting	aux
3	hinting	hint	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 deal	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 deal	det
6	deal	deal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hinting	obl
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 hinting	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hint speech: other	past · progressive	He			a deal			vn say-37.7-1-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He was hinting that he wished to purchase them, since Waldemar Daa desired gold in return

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 hinting	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 hinting	aux
3	hinting	hint	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 wished	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 wished	nsubj
6	wished	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 hinting	advcl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 purchase	mark
8	purchase	purchase	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 wished	xcomp
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 purchase	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 desired	punct
11	since	since	SCONJ	_	14 desired	mark
12	Waldemar	Waldemar	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 desired	nsubj
13	Daa	Daa	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 Waldemar	flat
14	desired	desire	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 hinting	conj
15	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 desired	obj
16	in	in	ADP	_	17 return	case
17	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 desired	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	hint speech: other	past · progressive	He			vn say-37.7-1-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	wish	past	he			vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	purchase not said to happen	to-infinitive	he not said here	them = they		vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset they=Theme
4	desire	past	Waldemar	gold	return	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot gold=Theme

Option 3

He hoped Waldemar would give them to him free, since the horses were fine ones and his own were old and weak.

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 hoped	nsubj
2	hoped	hope	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Waldemar	Waldemar	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 give	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 give	aux
5	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 hoped	ccomp
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 give	iobj
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 him	case
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 give	obl
9	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 give	xcomp
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 ones	punct
11	since	since	SCONJ	_	16 ones	mark
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 horses	det
13	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 ones	nsubj
14	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 ones	cop
15	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 ones	amod
16	ones	one	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 old	nsubj
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 own	cc
18	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 own	nmod:poss
19	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 ones	conj
20	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 old	cop
21	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 hoped	ccomp
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 weak	cc
23	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 old	conj
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 hoped	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	hope	past	He				vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	give	would	Waldemar		them = they	to him = he; free property	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Theme to he=Recipient
3	is a	past	the horses	fine ones			tree rules
4	be		the horses not said here				tree rules
5	is	past	fine ones			old property	tree rules
6	be		fine ones not said here				tree rules

Option 4

He wanted to buy them.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 buy	mark
4	buy	buy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 buy	obj
6	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 wanted	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	He						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	buy not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here	them = they					vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

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/books/1028-pg27200-part239/e2/