Exam question 3 · Basuto Tales, Thakane and Dilah: a mother hides her baby f…

Which of the following correctly states the custom of the country regarding female infants at the time of their birth?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, state, regard · To what, where: custom

This is exam question 3 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 states	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 states	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 states	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 states	nsubj
5	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	6 states	advmod
6	states	state	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 custom	det
8	custom	custom	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 states	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 country	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 country	det
11	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 custom	nmod
12	regarding	regard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 infants	case
13	female	female	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 infants	amod
14	infants	infant	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 custom	nmod
15	at	at	ADP	_	17 time	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 time	det
17	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 states	obl
18	of	of	ADP	_	20 birth	case
19	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 birth	nmod:poss
20	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 time	nmod
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 states	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	state speech: other	present	the custom of the country	time	regard female infants; correctly property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent custom=Topic
3	regard	gerund				vn assessment-34.1 «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 · ← Mova's choice

Given to the ogre

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 ogre	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 ogre	det
4	ogre	ogre	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Given	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	participle			the ogre				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to ogre=Recipient

Option 2

They were sold to the old women for cattle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sold	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 sold	aux:pass
3	sold	sell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 women	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 women	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 women	amod
7	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sold	obl
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 cattle	case
9	cattle	cattle	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sold	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sell	past · passive		They	the old women			for cattle	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: subject=Theme to woman=Recipient for cattle=Asset

Option 3

They were raised as servants in the king's household

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 raised	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 raised	aux:pass
3	raised	raise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	_	5 servants	case
5	servants	servant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 raised	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	10 household	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 king	det
8	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 household	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 king	case
10	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 raised	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	past · passive	the king's household	They				as servants	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They were to be given to the ogre to be eaten

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 given	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 given	aux
3	to	to	PART	_	5 given	mark
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 given	aux:pass
5	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 ogre	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 ogre	det
8	ogre	ogre	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 given	obl
9	to	to	PART	_	11 eaten	mark
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 eaten	aux:pass
11	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 ogre	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	past · passive		They	the ogre				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme to ogre=Recipient
2	eat	to-infinitive · passive							vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»

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/e3/