Exam question 2 · Crimson Fairy Book, The White Doe, part 36: the buffalo di…

Which statement correctly identifies the person slain by the young husband's gun?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: statement · What happens: identify, slay · To what, where: person

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1170 «Crimson Fairy Book, The White Doe, part 36: the buffalo dies, the wife poisons herself, and a queen is promised a daughter» 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 statement	det
2	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 identifies	nsubj
3	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	4 identifies	advmod
4	identifies	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 person	det
6	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 identifies	obj
7	slain	slay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 person	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	13 gun	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 husband	det
10	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 husband	amod
11	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 gun	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 husband	case
13	gun	gun	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 slain	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 identifies	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	present	which statement	the person				correctly property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent person=Theme
2	slay	participle		the person not said here				by the young husband's gun	vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=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

A deer, later found to be a neighbour's hunting dog

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 deer	det
2	deer	deer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 found	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 deer	punct
4	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 found	advmod
5	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	12 dog	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 dog	cop
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 neighbour	det
9	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 hunting	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 neighbour	case
11	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 dog	compound
12	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 found	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	find	past	a deer		late property	vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
2	is a	to-infinitive		hunting dog		tree rules
3	hunt		a neighbour			nom hunting «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

A wild bull

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 bull	det
2	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 bull	amod
3	bull	bull	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

A buffalo, later revealed to be the wife's servant who had been sent to test him

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 buffalo	det
2	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 revealed	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 buffalo	punct
4	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 revealed	advmod
5	revealed	reveal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	11 servant	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 servant	cop
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 wife	det
9	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 servant	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 wife	case
11	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 revealed	ccomp
12	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 sent	nsubj:pass
13	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 sent	aux
14	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	15 sent	aux:pass
15	sent	send	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 servant	acl:relcl
16	to	to	PART	_	17 test	mark
17	test	test	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 sent	advcl
18	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 test	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	reveal	past	a buffalo		late property	vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	to-infinitive	a buffalo not said here	the wife's servant		tree rules
3	send	past · perfect · passive		the wife's servant		vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
4	test	to-infinitive		buffalo		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A buffalo, later revealed to be the wife's servant

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 buffalo	det
2	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 revealed	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 buffalo	punct
4	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 revealed	advmod
5	revealed	reveal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	11 servant	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 servant	cop
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 wife	det
9	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 servant	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 wife	case
11	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 revealed	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reveal	past	a buffalo					late property	vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	to-infinitive	a buffalo not said here	the wife's servant					tree rules

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/1170-pg3027-part36/e2/