Exam question 4 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Valiant Little Tailor, part 12: t…

For what reason did the courtiers resolve to resign their posts?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: courtiers · What happens: do, resolve, resign · To what, where: posts

This is exam question 4 of lesson 109 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Valiant Little Tailor, part 12: the Tailor outwits a Giant and wins a King's dangerous task» 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	For	for	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 courtiers	det
6	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 resolve	nsubj
7	resolve	resolve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	parataxis
8	to	to	PART	_	9 resign	mark
9	resign	resign	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 resolve	xcomp
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 posts	nmod:poss
11	posts	post	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 resign	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	do	past			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality
2	resolve	present	the courtiers		tree rules
3	resign	to-infinitive	the courtiers not said here	courtiers's posts	vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent post=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

they refused to share a room with a thief

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 refused	nsubj
2	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 share	mark
4	share	share	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 refused	xcomp
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 room	det
6	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 share	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 thief	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 thief	det
9	thief	thief	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 room	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	refuse	past	they						vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not share	to-infinitive	they not said here	a room				with a thief	tree rules

Option 2

they were angry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 angry	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 angry	cop
3	angry	angry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

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

Option 3

they wanted gold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wanted	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	they	gold					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot gold=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

they refused to serve beside one who slew seven at a blow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 refused	nsubj
2	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 serve	mark
4	serve	serve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 refused	xcomp
5	beside	beside	ADP	_	6 one	case
6	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 serve	obj
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 slew	nsubj
8	slew	slay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 one	acl:relcl
9	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 slew	obj
10	at	at	ADP	_	12 blow	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 blow	det
12	blow	blow	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 slew	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	refuse	past	they			vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not serve	to-infinitive	they not said here	one		vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Attribute
3	slay	past		seven	a blow	vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seven=Patient

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/109-pg11027-part12/e4/