Exam question 2 · Andrew Lang's fairy book, The Prince and the Mermaid, part…

Which promise did the king make to the mermaid in return for the release of his vessel from the rock?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: promise, king · What happens: do, make

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1228 «Andrew Lang's fairy book, The Prince and the Mermaid, part 29: the prince runs from the mermaid and becomes a lion and a bear» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 promise	det
2	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 king	det
5	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 make	nsubj
6	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 mermaid	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 mermaid	det
9	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 make	obl
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 return	case
11	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 mermaid	nmod
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 release	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 release	det
14	release	release	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 return	nmod
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 vessel	case
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 vessel	nmod:poss
17	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 release	nmod
18	from	from	ADP	_	20 rock	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 rock	det
20	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 vessel	nmod
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	which promise						tree rules
2	make	present	the king					to the mermaid in return for the release of king's vessel from the rock	vn build-26.1-1 «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

To give up his eldest son

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 give	mark
2	give	give	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	up	up	ADP	_	2 give	compound:prt
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 son	nmod:poss
5	eldest	eld	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 son	amod
6	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 give	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give up	to-infinitive		his eldest son					vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Source

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To deliver his first child

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 deliver	mark
2	deliver	deliver	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 child	nmod:poss
4	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 child	amod
5	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 deliver	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	to-infinitive		his first child					vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient

Option 3

To surrender his kingdom's wealth of gold and silver to the mermaid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 surrender	mark
2	surrender	surrender	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 kingdom	nmod:poss
4	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wealth	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 kingdom	case
6	wealth	wealth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 surrender	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 gold	case
8	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wealth	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 silver	cc
10	silver	silver	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 gold	conj
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 mermaid	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 mermaid	det
13	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 surrender	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	surrender	to-infinitive		his kingdom's wealth of gold and silver	the mermaid				vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent wealth=Theme to mermaid=Recipient

Option 4

To deliver his first child to her once he came of age and was grown

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 deliver	mark
2	deliver	deliver	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 child	nmod:poss
4	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 child	amod
5	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 deliver	obj
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 her	case
7	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 deliver	obl
8	once	once	SCONJ	_	10 came	mark
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 came	nsubj
10	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 deliver	advcl
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 age	case
12	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 came	obl
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 grown	cc
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 grown	aux:pass
15	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 came	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	roles by
1	deliver	to-infinitive		his first child	child		vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent child=Theme to she=Destination
2	come	past	he			of age	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme of age=Initial_Location
3	grow	past · passive	he not said here				vn appear-48.1.1 «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/1228-pg3282-part29/e2/