Exam question 3 · Irish Fairy Tales, Fionn and the Man from the Shi', part 1…

Upon what grounds does Fiacuil justify his own presence on the plain at that hour?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: grounds · What happens: justify · To what, where: own presence, plain

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1044 «Irish Fairy Tales, Fionn and the Man from the Shi', part 12: Fionn waits alone in the dark, meets his old friend Fiacuil, and gets ready for the Man of the Shi'» 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	Upon	upon	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 justify	obl
3	grounds	grounds	NOUN	Number=Ptan	6 justify	nsubj
4	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 justify	aux
5	Fiacuil	Fiacuil	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 justify	nsubj
6	justify	justify	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 presence	nmod:poss
8	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 presence	amod
9	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 justify	obj
10	on	on	ADP	_	12 plain	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 plain	det
12	plain	plain	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 justify	obl
13	at	at	ADP	_	15 hour	case
14	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	15 hour	det
15	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 plain	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 justify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	justify speech: other	present · do-support	grounds	Fiacuil's own presence		the plain at that hour			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent presence=Topic

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 · ✓ the right answer

He comes to help Fionn in return for payment

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 comes	nsubj
2	comes	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 help	mark
4	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 comes	advcl
5	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 help	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 return	case
7	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 help	obl
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 payment	case
9	payment	payment	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 return	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	present	He						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	help	to-infinitive	He not said here		Fionn	return for payment			vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fionn=Beneficiary

Option 2

For gold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	For	for	ADP	_	2 gold	case
2	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

To be paid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	3 paid	mark
2	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	3 paid	aux:pass
3	paid	pay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay	to-infinitive · passive							vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He came because Fionn asked him to come

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 came	nsubj
2	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	5 asked	mark
4	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 asked	nsubj
5	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 came	advcl
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 asked	iobj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 come	mark
8	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 asked	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	roles by
1	come	past	He		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	ask speech: ask	past	Fionn	him = he	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
3	come not said to happen	to-infinitive	Fionn not said here		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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/1044-pg2892-part12/e3/