Exam question 3 · Russian Folk-Tales, Little Tsar Novishny, part 8: the Tsar…

Ascertain the reply of the stove when interrogated by the serpent concerning the children.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, serpent · What happens: ascertain, interrogate, concern, reply · To what, where: reply, children, stove

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1102 «Russian Folk-Tales, Little Tsar Novishny, part 8: the Tsar promises Satan what awaits him at home, and the children are hidden in a ditch» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reply	det
3	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 stove	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 stove	det
6	stove	stove	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reply	nmod
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 interrogated	advmod
8	interrogated	interrogate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	advcl
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 serpent	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 serpent	det
11	serpent	serpent	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 interrogated	obl
12	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 serpent	acl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 children	det
14	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 concerning	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reply of the stove		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reply=Topic
2	interrogate speech: other	participle	you not said here		by the serpent	vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	concern	gerund	the serpent not said here	the children		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus child=Experiencer
4	reply			the stove		nom reply «communication transitive»: of=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

It swore loyalty to the king

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 swore	nsubj
2	swore	swear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	loyalty	loyalty	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swore	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 king	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 king	det
6	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swore	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swear	past	It	loyalty				to the king	vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent loyalty=Eventuality

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It declared complete loyalty to the Tsar and told the serpent a lie

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 declared	nsubj
2	declared	declare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 loyalty	amod
4	loyalty	loyalty	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 declared	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 Tsar	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Tsar	det
7	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 declared	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 told	cc
9	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 declared	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 serpent	det
11	serpent	serpent	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 told	obj
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 lie	det
13	lie	lie	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 told	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	declare speech: other	past	It	complete loyalty	the Tsar				vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent loyalty=Theme to tsar=Recipient
2	tell speech: assert	past		the serpent					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent serpent=Recipient lie=Topic

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It declared loyalty to the Tsar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 declared	nsubj
2	declared	declare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	loyalty	loyalty	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 declared	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 Tsar	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Tsar	det
6	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 declared	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	declare speech: other	past	It	loyalty	the Tsar				vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent loyalty=Theme to tsar=Recipient

Option 4

It declared loyalty to the Tsar and refused to reveal the children

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 declared	nsubj
2	declared	declare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	loyalty	loyalty	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 declared	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 Tsar	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Tsar	det
6	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 declared	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 refused	cc
8	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 declared	conj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 reveal	mark
10	reveal	reveal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 refused	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 children	det
12	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 reveal	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	declare speech: other	past	It	loyalty	the Tsar	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent loyalty=Theme to tsar=Recipient
2	refuse	past				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not reveal	to-infinitive		the children		vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Topic

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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