Exam question 3 · Russian Folk-Tales, The Straw-Stuffed Ox: the old couple t…

By what means did the wolf become affixed to the ox?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: wolf · What happens: mean, do, become, affix

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1114 «Russian Folk-Tales, The Straw-Stuffed Ox: the old couple trap the bear, wolf, fox and hare and grow rich» 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	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	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 wolf	det
6	wolf	wolf	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 become	nsubj
7	become	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	ccomp
8	affixed	affix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 become	xcomp
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 ox	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 ox	det
11	ox	ox	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 affixed	obl
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	do	past			tree rules
3	become	present	the wolf		tree rules
4	affix	participle	the wolf not said here	to the ox	vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle PP»: agent=Patient to ox=Co-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

by chewing the rope

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 chewing	mark
2	chewing	chew	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 rope	det
4	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 chewing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chew	gerund		the rope					vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rope=Patient

Option 2

by pulling hard on the sticky tar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 pulling	mark
2	pulling	pull	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 pulling	advmod
4	on	on	ADP	_	7 tar	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tar	det
6	sticky	sticky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 tar	amod
7	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pulling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	gerund						on the sticky tar; hard property	vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent on tar=Theme

Option 3

by pulling the tar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 pulling	mark
2	pulling	pull	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 tar	det
4	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pulling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	gerund		the tar					vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tar=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

by tugging at the tar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 tugging	mark
2	tugging	tug	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	at	at	ADP	_	5 tar	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 tar	det
5	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tugging	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tug	gerund						at the tar	vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at tar=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/1114-pg29672-part20/e3/