Exam question 3 · Fionn Tales, Fionn at Tara, part 11: Fionn offers to defen…

By what means did Fionn customarily discover what was hidden?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do, discover, hide · To what, where: Fionn · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1043 «Fionn Tales, Fionn at Tara, part 11: Fionn offers to defend Tara against Aillen» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
6	customarily	customarily	ADV	_	7 discover	advmod
7	discover	discover	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	advcl
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	10 hidden	nsubj:pass
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 hidden	aux:pass
10	hidden	hide	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 discover	ccomp
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past	Fionn		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fionn=Eventuality
3	discover	present		customarily property	vn discover-84-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	hide	past · passive			vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

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

By burning the sacred oak wood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 burning	mark
2	burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 wood	det
4	sacred	sacred	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 wood	amod
5	oak	oak	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wood	compound
6	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	gerund		the sacred oak wood					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent wood=Theme

Option 2

By gazing into a dish of water and waiting for the vision to appear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 gazing	mark
2	gazing	gaze	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	5 dish	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 dish	det
5	dish	dish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gazing	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 water	case
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dish	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 waiting	cc
9	waiting	wait	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 gazing	conj
10	for	for	ADP	_	12 vision	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 vision	det
12	vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 waiting	obl
13	to	to	PART	_	14 appear	mark
14	appear	appear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 gazing	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	other	roles by
1	gaze	gerund	into a dish of water	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into dish=Theme
2	wait	gerund	for the vision	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	appear	to-infinitive		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By gazing into a dish of water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 gazing	mark
2	gazing	gaze	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	5 dish	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 dish	det
5	dish	dish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gazing	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 water	case
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dish	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gaze	gerund						into a dish of water	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into dish=Theme

Option 4

By placing his thumb on his wisdom tooth and gazing at the old salmon

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 placing	mark
2	placing	place	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 thumb	nmod:poss
4	thumb	thumb	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 placing	obj
5	on	on	ADP	_	8 tooth	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 tooth	nmod:poss
7	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 tooth	compound
8	tooth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 placing	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 gazing	cc
10	gazing	gaze	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 placing	conj
11	at	at	ADP	_	14 salmon	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 salmon	det
13	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 salmon	amod
14	salmon	salmon	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 gazing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	gerund		his thumb		his wisdom tooth			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent thumb=Theme on tooth=Destination
2	gaze	gerund						at the old salmon	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at salmon=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/1043-pg2892-part11/e3/