Exam question 4 · Grimm, Thumbling, part 21: a tiny boy is sold, escapes, an…

By what means did the child control the horse during the journey to the forest?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: child · What happens: mean, control · To what, where: horse

This is exam question 4 of lesson 118 «Grimm, Thumbling, part 21: a tiny boy is sold, escapes, and offers to help thieves rob a pastor» 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 control	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 control	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 child	det
6	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 control	nsubj
7	control	control	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 horse	det
9	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 control	obj
10	during	during	ADP	_	12 journey	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 journey	det
12	journey	journey	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 control	obl
13	to	to	ADP	_	15 forest	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 forest	det
15	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 control	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 control	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	control	past · do-support	the child	the horse			during the journey	to the forest	vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=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

He climbed onto the horse's back and steered it with the reins and whip all the way to the forest

The tree, 21 words

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 climbed	nsubj
2	climbed	climb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	onto	onto	ADP	_	7 back	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 horse	det
5	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 back	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 horse	case
7	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 climbed	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 steered	cc
9	steered	steer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 climbed	conj
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 steered	obj
11	with	with	ADP	_	13 reins	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 reins	det
13	reins	rein	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 steered	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 whip	cc
15	whip	whip	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres Typo=Yes VerbForm=Fin	2 climbed	conj
16	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	18 way	det:predet
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 way	det
18	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 climbed	obl:unmarked
19	to	to	ADP	_	21 forest	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 forest	det
21	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 climbed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	climb	past	He	all way	the horse's back	to the forest	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme onto back=Initial_Location to forest=Destination
2	steer	past	He not said here	back		with the reins	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	whip	present	He not said here				vn shake-22.3-1-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He directed it from within its ear

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 directed	nsubj
2	directed	direct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 directed	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	7 ear	case
5	within	within	ADP	_	7 ear	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 ear	nmod:poss
7	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 directed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	direct	past	He	it		its ear			vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He guided it from the saddle top

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 guided	nsubj
2	guided	guide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 guided	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	7 top	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 top	det
6	saddle	saddle	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 top	compound
7	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 guided	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guide	past	He	it		the saddle top			vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme from top=Destination

Option 4

He sat in the horse's ear and directed it by shouting commands to the stable boy outside

The tree, 18 words

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 sat	nsubj
2	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	7 ear	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 horse	det
5	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ear	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 horse	case
7	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sat	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 directed	cc
9	directed	direct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 sat	conj
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 directed	obj
11	by	by	SCONJ	_	12 shouting	mark
12	shouting	shout	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 directed	advcl
13	commands	command	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 shouting	obj
14	to	to	ADP	_	17 boy	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 boy	det
16	stable	stable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 boy	amod
17	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 shouting	obl
18	outside	outside	ADV	_	17 boy	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	roles by
1	sit	past	He			the horse's ear	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in ear=Location
2	direct	past	He not said here	ear			vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality
3	shout speech: express	gerund	He not said here	commands	the stable boy		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent command=Topic to boy=Recipient

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/118-pg11027-part21/e4/