Exam question 4 · Russian Folk-Tales, The Two Princes, part 28: the elder br…

What sign does the elder brother establish at the crossroads to communicate his peril?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sign, brother · What happens: establish, communicate, peril · To what, where: crossroads, peril

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1122 «Russian Folk-Tales, The Two Princes, part 28: the elder brother is turned to stone, and the younger brother wins him back from a witch» 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	What	what	DET	PronType=Int	2 sign	det
2	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 establish	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 establish	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 brother	det
5	elder	elder	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 brother	amod
6	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 establish	nsubj
7	establish	establish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 crossroads	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 crossroads	det
10	crossroads	crossroad	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 establish	obl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 communicate	mark
12	communicate	communicate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 establish	advcl
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 peril	nmod:poss
14	peril	peril	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 communicate	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 establish	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	establish	present · do-support	what sign		the crossroads	vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
2	communicate	to-infinitive	what sign not said here	brother's peril		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent peril=Topic
3	peril		brother			nom peril «state transitive»: poss=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

A knife driven deep into a maple trunk so the blade stands upright

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 knife	det
2	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 stands	nsubj
3	driven	drive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 knife	acl
4	deep	deep	ADV	_	3 driven	advmod
5	into	into	ADP	_	8 trunk	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 trunk	det
7	maple	maple	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 trunk	compound
8	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 driven	obl
9	so	so	SCONJ	_	11 blade	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 blade	det
11	blade	blade	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 driven	obl
12	stands	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	upright	upright	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 stands	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drive	participle		a knife not said here		a maple trunk		so the blade; deep property	vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent into trunk=Trajectory
2	stand	present	a knife					upright property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

A knife driven into a maple trunk with blood dripping from the blade

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 knife	det
2	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	driven	drive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 knife	acl
4	into	into	ADP	_	7 trunk	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 trunk	det
6	maple	maple	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 trunk	compound
7	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 driven	obl
8	with	with	ADP	_	9 blood	case
9	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 knife	nmod
10	dripping	drip	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 knife	acl
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 blade	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 blade	det
13	blade	blade	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 dripping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drive	participle		a knife with blood not said here		a maple trunk			vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent into trunk=Trajectory
2	drip	gerund	a knife with blood not said here			the blade			vn substance_emission-43.4-1 «NP.theme V PP.source»: agent=Theme from blade=Source

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A knife driven into a maple trunk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 knife	det
2	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	driven	drive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 knife	acl
4	into	into	ADP	_	7 trunk	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 trunk	det
6	maple	maple	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 trunk	compound
7	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 driven	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drive	participle		a knife not said here		a maple trunk			vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent into trunk=Trajectory

Option 4

A cloak hung from an oak branch

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 cloak	det
2	cloak	cloak	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	hung	hang	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 cloak	acl
4	from	from	ADP	_	7 branch	case
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 branch	det
6	oak	oak	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 branch	compound
7	branch	branch	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hung	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hang	participle		a cloak not said here		a oak branch			vn assuming_position-50 «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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1122-pg29672-part28/e4/