Exam question 4 · West Highland Tales, Pinkel the Thief, part 1: Manus is cr…

What reply did the youngest brother make when the witch wished to detain him?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: witch · What happens: be, do, make, wish, detain · To what, where: youngest brother, him

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1160 «West Highland Tales, Pinkel the Thief, part 1: Manus is crowned by a lion; Pinkel escapes 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 make	nsubj:outer
2	reply	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	acl:relcl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 brother	det
5	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 brother	amod
6	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
7	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	11 wished	advmod
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 witch	det
10	witch	witch	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 wished	nsubj
11	wished	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 make	ccomp
12	to	to	PART	_	13 detain	mark
13	detain	detain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 wished	xcomp
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 detain	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 make	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	present			tree rules
2	do	past		the youngest brother	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brother=Eventuality
3	make	present			tree rules
4	wish	past	the witch		vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
5	detain not said to happen	to-infinitive	the witch not said here	him = he	vn confine-92 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

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

He mocked her for her fear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 mocked	nsubj
2	mocked	mock	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 mocked	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 fear	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 fear	nmod:poss
6	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 mocked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mock	past	He	her = she				for her fear	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent she=Theme for fear=Attribute
2	fear		her = she						nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He questioned her fear of him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 questioned	nsubj
2	questioned	question	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 fear	nmod:poss
4	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 questioned	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 him	case
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 fear	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	question speech: other	past	He	her fear of him					vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fear=Recipient
2	fear		her = she	him = he					nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 3

He asked her why she feared him so much

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 asked	nsubj
2	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 asked	iobj
4	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 feared	advmod
5	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 feared	nsubj
6	feared	fear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 asked	advcl
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 feared	obj
8	so	so	ADV	_	9 much	advmod
9	much	much	ADV	_	6 feared	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	He		her = she				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient
2	fear	past	she	him = he					vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus

Option 4

He doubted her fear of him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 doubted	nsubj
2	doubted	doubt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 fear	nmod:poss
4	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 doubted	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 him	case
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 fear	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	doubt	past	He	her fear of him					vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fear=Theme
2	fear		her = she	him = he					nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

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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