Exam question 1 · Basuto Tales, Thakane and Dilah: a mother hides her baby f…

Which of the following best describes the reason the old woman of the lake gave for demanding payment for the release of the girl?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old woman · What happens: follow, describe, give, demand · To what, where: reason, payment

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1225 «Basuto Tales, Thakane and Dilah: a mother hides her baby from the ogre's pot, and a father pays a thousand cattle to win back his 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 describes	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 best	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 best	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 best	case
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 describes	nmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 reason	det
8	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describes	obj
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 woman	det
10	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 woman	amod
11	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 gave	nsubj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 lake	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 lake	det
14	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 woman	nmod
15	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 reason	acl:relcl
16	for	for	SCONJ	_	17 demanding	mark
17	demanding	demand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 gave	advcl
18	payment	payment	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 demanding	obj
19	for	for	ADP	_	21 release	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 release	det
21	release	release	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 payment	nmod
22	of	of	ADP	_	24 girl	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 girl	det
24	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 release	nmod
25	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the reason	of the best	tree rules
3	give	past	the old woman of the lake	the reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
4	demand speech: request	gerund	the old woman of the lake not said here	payment	for the release of the girl	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme payment=Precondition

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

She required a thousand head of cattle in exchange for Dilah

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 required	nsubj
2	required	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 head	det
4	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 head	nummod
5	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 required	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 cattle	case
7	cattle	cattle	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 head	nmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 exchange	case
9	exchange	exchange	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 required	obl
10	for	for	ADP	_	11 Dilah	case
11	Dilah	Dilah	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 exchange	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	past	She	a thousand head of cattle		exchange for Dilah			vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme head=Precondition

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

She asked for her lake to be fed every spring

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem 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	for	for	ADP	_	5 lake	case
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 lake	nmod:poss
5	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 asked	obl
6	to	to	PART	_	8 fed	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 fed	aux:pass
8	fed	feed	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 asked	advcl
9	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	10 spring	det
10	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	She					for her lake	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	feed	to-infinitive · passive	She not said here				spring		vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»

Option 3

She wanted the travellers to build her a new house by the lake

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 travellers	det
4	travellers	traveller	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 wanted	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 build	mark
6	build	build	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
7	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 build	obj
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 house	det
9	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 house	amod
10	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 build	obj
11	by	by	ADP	_	13 lake	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 lake	det
13	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 build	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	She	the travellers					tree rules
2	build not said to happen	to-infinitive	the travellers not said here	a new house	her = she			by the lake	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset she=Beneficiary house=Product

Option 4

She demanded a hundred goats in return for the girl

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 demanded	nsubj
2	demanded	demand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 goats	det
4	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 goats	nummod
5	goats	goat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 demanded	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 return	case
7	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demanded	obl
8	for	for	ADP	_	10 girl	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 girl	det
10	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demanded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demand speech: request	past	She	a hundred goats		return		for the girl	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme goat=Precondition

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/1225-pg3282-part26/e1/