Exam question 4 · Russian Fairy Tales, The Sister of the Sun, part 39: a shi…

By what means did the bridegroom destroy the serpent's three heads?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: bridegroom · What happens: mean, destroy · To what, where: three heads

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1238 «Russian Fairy Tales, The Sister of the Sun, part 39: a ship saves the boy, and the king sets three tasks» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 destroy	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 destroy	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 bridegroom	det
6	bridegroom	bridegroom	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 destroy	nsubj
7	destroy	destroy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 serpent	det
9	serpent	serpent	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 heads	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 serpent	case
11	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 heads	nummod
12	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 destroy	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 destroy	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	destroy	past · do-support	the bridegroom	the serpent's three heads					vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient

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

with one blow of the sword

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	with	with	ADP	_	3 blow	case
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 blow	nummod
3	blow	blow	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 sword	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sword	det
6	sword	sword	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 blow	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blow		the sword						nom blow «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

by burning all three heads with the princess's fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 burning	mark
2	burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 heads	det
4	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 heads	nummod
5	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 burning	obj
6	with	with	ADP	_	10 fire	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 princess	det
8	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fire	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 princess	case
10	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	gerund		all three heads				with the princess's fire	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent head=Patient with fire=Instrument
2	fire		the princess						nom fire «event transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

with a spear thrust to his heart

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	with	with	ADP	_	4 thrust	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 thrust	det
3	spear	spear	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 thrust	compound
4	thrust	thrust	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 heart	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 heart	nmod:poss
7	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 thrust	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

with one blow of the magic sword and the sun's light

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	with	with	ADP	_	3 blow	case
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 blow	nummod
3	blow	blow	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 sword	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 sword	det
6	magic	magic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sword	amod
7	sword	sword	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 blow	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 light	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 sun	det
10	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 light	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 sun	case
12	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 blow	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blow		the magic sword						nom blow «act intransitive»: of=agent
2	light		the sun						nom light «phenomenon transitive»: poss=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/1238-pg3282-part39/e4/