Exam question 3 · Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar Novishny, part 11: the…

By what means were the serpent's remains destroyed?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, be, destroy · To what, where: remains

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1105 «Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar Novishny, part 11: the starling's warnings and the boiling water» 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	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 remains	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 serpent	det
6	serpent	serpent	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 remains	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 serpent	case
8	remains	remains	NOUN	Number=Ptan	3 means	obj
9	destroyed	destroy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 remains	acl
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	the serpent's remains	tree rules
3	destroy	participle	the serpent's remains not said here	vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: 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

by the hunters who cut it with swords

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 hunters	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 hunters	det
3	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 cut	nsubj
5	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 hunters	acl:relcl
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 cut	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 swords	case
8	swords	sword	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 cut	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut	past	the hunters	it				with swords	vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient with sword=Instrument

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

by the dogs and beasts tearing it to pieces on command

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 dogs	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dogs	det
3	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 beasts	cc
5	beasts	beast	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 dogs	conj
6	tearing	tear	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 dogs	acl
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 tearing	obj
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 pieces	case
9	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 tearing	obl
10	on	on	ADP	_	11 command	case
11	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 pieces	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tear	gerund	the dogs and beasts not said here	it				to pieces on command result	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent it=Patient to piece=Result

Option 3

by the dogs and beasts that crushed its bones at dawn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 dogs	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dogs	det
3	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 beasts	cc
5	beasts	beast	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 dogs	conj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 crushed	nsubj
7	crushed	crush	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 dogs	acl:relcl
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 bones	nmod:poss
9	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 crushed	obj
10	at	at	ADP	_	11 dawn	case
11	dawn	dawn	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 crushed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crush	past	the dogs and beasts	its bones			dawn		vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient

Option 4

by the dogs and beasts tearing it to pieces on command, after the flute had lulled it to sleep

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 dogs	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dogs	det
3	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 beasts	cc
5	beasts	beast	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 dogs	conj
6	tearing	tear	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 beasts	acl
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 tearing	obj
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 pieces	case
9	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 tearing	obl
10	on	on	ADP	_	11 command	case
11	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tearing	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 lulled	punct
13	after	after	SCONJ	_	17 lulled	mark
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 flute	det
15	flute	flute	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 lulled	nsubj:pass
16	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 lulled	aux
17	lulled	lull	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 dogs	acl
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 lulled	obj
19	to	to	PART	_	20 sleep	mark
20	sleep	sleep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	17 lulled	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	tear	gerund	beasts not said here	it	command	to pieces result	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent it=Patient to piece=Result
2	lull	past · perfect · passive	the dogs and beasts not said here	the flute			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer it=Result
3	sleep	to-infinitive	the dogs and beasts not said here				vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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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