Exam question 2 · Indian tales, The Jackal and the Panther, part 29: the tig…

By what means did the hedgehog establish that the animal was not a sheep?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: hedgehog, animal · What happens: mean, establish, not be · To what, where: sheep

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1163 «Indian tales, The Jackal and the Panther, part 29: the tight shoes and the greyhound in sheep's wool» 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=Rel	7 establish	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 establish	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 hedgehog	det
6	hedgehog	hedgehog	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 establish	nsubj
7	establish	establish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	14 sheep	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 animal	det
10	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 sheep	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 sheep	cop
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 sheep	advmod
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 sheep	det
14	sheep	sheep	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 establish	advcl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 establish	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	establish	past · do-support	the hedgehog		vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	not is a	past	the animal	a sheep	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 · ✓ the right answer

By observing the greyhound's paws

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 observing	mark
2	observing	observe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 greyhound	det
4	greyhound	greyhound	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 paws	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 greyhound	case
6	paws	paw	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 observing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	observe	gerund		the greyhound's paws					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent paw=Topic

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

By hearing it bark

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 hearing	mark
2	hearing	hear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 hearing	obj
4	bark	bark	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hearing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hear	gerund		it					tree rules

Option 3

By counting its ears closely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 counting	mark
2	counting	count	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 ears	nmod:poss
4	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 counting	obj
5	closely	closely	ADV	_	2 counting	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	gerund		its ears				closely property	vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ear=Theme

Option 4

By watching its strange walk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 watching	mark
2	watching	watch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 walk	nmod:poss
4	strange	strange	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 walk	amod
5	walk	walk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 watching	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	watch	gerund		its strange walk					vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent walk=Theme
2	walk		its = it						nom walk «act transitive»: poss=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/1163-pg3027-part29/e2/