Exam question 2 · Lang's Fairy Book, The Bunyip: young fishermen catch a Bun…

What did the captor declare regarding the creature in his possession?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: captor · What happens: declare, regard, possess

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1213 «Lang's Fairy Book, The Bunyip: young fishermen catch a Bunyip cub, its angry mother rises from the pool, and the youths are turned into swans» 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=Int	5 declare	obj
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 declare	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 captor	det
4	captor	captor	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 declare	nsubj
5	declare	declare	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	regarding	regard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 creature	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 creature	det
8	creature	creature	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 declare	obl
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 possession	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 possession	nmod:poss
11	possession	possession	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 creature	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 declare	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	declare speech: other	past · do-support	the captor	regard the creature in captor's possession	vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Attribute
2	regard	gerund			vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	possess		captor		nom possession «act transitive»: poss=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 · ← Mova's choice

that he had seen it swim away and let it go

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	4 seen	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 seen	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 seen	aux
4	seen	see	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 swim	advcl
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 swim	nsubj
6	swim	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	away	away	ADV	_	6 swim	advmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 let	cc
9	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 swim	conj
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 let	obj
11	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 let	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	see	past · perfect	he			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	swim away	present	it		away property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	let	infinitive		it		tree rules
4	go	infinitive				vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

that it would be eaten by the tribe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	5 eaten	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 eaten	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 eaten	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 eaten	aux:pass
5	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 tribe	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 tribe	det
8	tribe	tribe	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eaten	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	would · passive	the tribe	it					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 3

that he would release it at sunset tonight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	4 release	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 release	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 release	aux
4	release	release	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 release	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 sunset	case
7	sunset	sunset	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 release	obl
8	tonight	tonight	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 release	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	release	would	he	it			sunset; tonight		vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer it=Source

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

that he had caught it and would keep it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	4 caught	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 caught	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 caught	aux
4	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 caught	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 keep	cc
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 keep	aux
8	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 caught	conj
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 keep	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	past · perfect · passive		he					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary it=Theme
2	keep	would		it					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1213-pg3282-part14/e2/