Exam question 4 · Basuto Tales, Thakane and Dilah: a mother hides her baby f…

Which of the following most accurately describes the manner in which Thakane summoned her daughter from the water?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Thakane · What happens: follow, describe, summon · To what, where: manner, daughter

This is exam question 4 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	7 describes	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 describes	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 describes	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 describes	csubj
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	7 describes	advmod
7	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 manner	det
9	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 describes	obj
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 which	case
11	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 summoned	obl
12	Thakane	Thakane	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 summoned	nsubj
13	summoned	summon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 manner	acl:relcl
14	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 daughter	nmod:poss
15	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 summoned	obj
16	from	from	ADP	_	18 water	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 water	det
18	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 summoned	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the manner			accurately property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent manner=Theme
3	summon	past	Thakane		Thakane's daughter	the manner	from the water	vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Recipient

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

By whistling a tune to her daughter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 whistling	mark
2	whistling	whistle	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 tune	det
4	tune	tune	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 whistling	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 daughter	case
6	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 daughter	nmod:poss
7	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 whistling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	whistle	gerund		a tune	her daughter				vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent tune=Topic to daughter=Recipient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

By shouting her name

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 shouting	mark
2	shouting	shout	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 name	nmod:poss
4	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shouting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	gerund		her name					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent name=Topic
2	name		her = she						nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

By waving a white cloth from the shore

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 waving	mark
2	waving	wave	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 cloth	det
4	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cloth	amod
5	cloth	cloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 waving	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 shore	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 shore	det
8	shore	shore	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 waving	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wave	gerund		a white cloth		the shore			vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cloth=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

By singing a short song addressed to Dilah

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 singing	mark
2	singing	sing	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 song	det
4	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 song	amod
5	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 singing	obj
6	addressed	address	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 song	acl
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 Dilah	case
8	Dilah	Dilah	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 addressed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sing speech: express	gerund		a short song					vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme
2	address	participle		a short song not said here	Dilah				vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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/e4/