Exam question 1 · Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Muskrat: the sly muskra…

Which object did Iktomi attach to his body in order to reduce his speed during the contest?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: object · What happens: attach, reduce · To what, where: speed

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1266 «Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Muskrat: the sly muskrat beats Iktomi in a race, then gets the last laugh» 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 object	det
2	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 attach	nsubj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 attach	aux
4	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 attach	nsubj
5	attach	attach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 body	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 body	nmod:poss
8	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 attach	obl
9	in	in	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	12 reduce	mark
10	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 in	fixed
11	to	to	PART	_	12 reduce	mark
12	reduce	reduce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 attach	advcl
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 speed	nmod:poss
14	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 reduce	obj
15	during	during	ADP	_	17 contest	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 contest	det
17	contest	contest	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 reduce	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 attach	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attach	past · do-support	which object					to Iktomi's body	vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent to body=Co-Patient
2	reduce	to-infinitive	which object not said here	Iktomi's speed			during the contest		vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer speed=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 · ← Mova's choice

a heavy log bound in rope

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 log	det
2	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 log	amod
3	log	log	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	bound	bind	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 log	acl
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 rope	case
6	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bound	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bind	participle		a heavy log not said here		rope			vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 2

a bag of wet sand tied up

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 bag	det
2	bag	bag	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tied	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 sand	case
4	wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 sand	amod
5	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bag	nmod
6	tied	tie	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	up	up	ADP	_	6 tied	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie up	participle · passive		a bag of wet sand					vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3

a heavy rock

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 rock	det
2	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 rock	amod
3	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

a heavy stone wrapped in a blanket

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 stone	det
2	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stone	amod
3	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	wrapped	wrap	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 stone	acl
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 blanket	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 blanket	det
7	blanket	blanket	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wrapped	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wrap	participle		a heavy stone not said here		a blanket			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme in blanket=Destination

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/1266-pg338-part3/e1/