Exam question 1 · Celtic Fairy Tales, Ian the Soldier's Son, part 8: Ian fre…

Which phrase identifies the individual who was instructed to descend first, and what was the reason for this instruction?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: phrase · What happens: identify, instruct, descend, be · To what, where: individual, reason

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1142 «Celtic Fairy Tales, Ian the Soldier's Son, part 8: Ian frees the knight's daughter, kills the giant, and is left behind on the island» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identifies	nsubj
3	identifies	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 individual	det
5	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identifies	obj
6	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 instructed	nsubj:pass
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 instructed	aux:pass
8	instructed	instruct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 individual	acl:relcl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 descend	mark
10	descend	descend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 instructed	xcomp
11	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	10 descend	advmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 reason	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 reason	cc
14	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	17 reason	nsubj
15	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 reason	cop
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 reason	det
17	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identifies	parataxis
18	for	for	ADP	_	20 instruction	case
19	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	20 instruction	det
20	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 reason	nmod
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 identifies	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	present	which phrase	the individual		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent individual=Theme
2	instruct speech: other	past · passive		the individual		vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
3	descend	to-infinitive			first property	vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	is a	past		the reason	for this instruction	tree rules

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

The eldest sister, who led them down the stair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sister	det
2	eldest	eld	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 sister	amod
3	sister	sister	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 led	nsubj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 led	punct
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 led	nsubj
6	led	lead	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 led	obj
8	down	down	ADP	_	6 led	compound:prt
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 stair	det
10	stair	stair	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 led	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lead down	past	the eldest sister	them = they					tree rules

Option 2

Ian, who went first to see the way

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ian	Ian	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 went	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 went	punct
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 went	nsubj
4	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 went	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 see	mark
7	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 went	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 way	det
9	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 see	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	Ian					first property	vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	see	to-infinitive	Ian not said here	the way					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer way=Stimulus

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Ian, who bade the sisters precede him lest accident occur

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ian	Ian	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 occur	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 bade	punct
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 bade	nsubj
4	bade	bade	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Ian	acl:relcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sisters	det
6	sisters	sister	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 bade	obj
7	precede	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 bade	xcomp
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 precede	obj
9	lest	lest	SCONJ	_	10 accident	case
10	accident	accident	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 precede	obl
11	occur	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	bade	past	Ian	the sisters		tree rules
2	precede	infinitive	Ian not said here	Ian	lest accident	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Co-Theme
3	occur	present	Ian			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The youngest sister, who went last

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sister	det
2	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 sister	amod
3	sister	sister	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 went	nsubj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 went	punct
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 went	nsubj
6	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	last	last	ADV	_	6 went	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	the youngest sister					last property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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