Exam question 4 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Three Feathers: Dummling wins the…

Explain the reason the elder brothers gave the King for objecting to Dummling's succession, as stated in the passage.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, elder brothers · What happens: explain, give, object, state · To what, where: reason, King, succession, passage

This is exam question 4 of lesson 105 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Three Feathers: Dummling wins the crown with a carpet, a ring and a bride; then Snow-White begins» 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Explain	obj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 brothers	det
5	elder	elder	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 brothers	amod
6	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 gave	nsubj
7	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 King	det
9	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 gave	obj
10	for	for	SCONJ	_	11 objecting	mark
11	objecting	object	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 gave	advcl
12	to	to	ADP	_	15 succession	case
13	Dummling	Dummling	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 succession	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 Dummling	case
15	succession	succession	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 objecting	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 stated	punct
17	as	as	SCONJ	_	18 stated	mark
18	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 gave	advcl
19	in	in	ADP	_	21 passage	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 passage	det
21	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 stated	obl
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here	the reason			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	give	past	the elder brothers	the King			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Theme
3	object speech: other	gerund	the elder brothers not said here		Dummling's succession		vn complain-37.8 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to succession=Recipient
4	state speech: other	participle	the elder brothers not said here			the passage	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

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

he was not the eldest son

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	6 son	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 son	cop
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 son	advmod
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 son	det
5	eldest	eld	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 son	amod
6	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is a	past	he	the eldest son					tree rules

Option 2

he had no fine skills

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 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 skills	det
4	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 skills	amod
5	skills	skill	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	he	no fine skills					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skill=Patient

Option 3

he was a fool with no skills

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	4 fool	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fool	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 fool	det
4	fool	fool	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 skills	case
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 skills	det
7	skills	skill	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fool	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	he	a fool				with no skills	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

that he was not at all wise

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 wise	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 wise	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 wise	cop
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 wise	advmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 all	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 wise	obl
7	wise	wise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	past	he			all		wise 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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