Exam question 2 · Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Muskrat: the sly muskra…

In what manner did the muskrat ultimately deliver the bone toward Iktomi?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: do, deliver · To what, where: muskrat, manner, bone

This is exam question 2 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 muskrat	det
6	muskrat	muskrat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	ultimately	ultimately	ADV	_	8 deliver	advmod
8	deliver	deliver	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 bone	det
10	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 deliver	obj
11	toward	toward	ADP	_	12 Iktomi	case
12	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 bone	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		the muskrat		what manner			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent muskrat=Eventuality
2	deliver	present		the bone				toward Iktomi; ultimately property	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=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 · ✓ the right answer

by letting it fall from a branch

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 letting	mark
2	letting	let	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 letting	obj
4	fall	fall	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 letting	xcomp
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 branch	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 branch	det
7	branch	branch	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fall	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let	gerund		it					tree rules
2	fall	infinitive				a branch			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from branch=Initial_Location

Option 2

by rolling it down a slope

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 rolling	mark
2	rolling	roll	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 rolling	obj
4	down	down	ADP	_	2 rolling	compound:prt
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 slope	det
6	slope	slope	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 rolling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	roll down	gerund		it					vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP ADJ.result»: agent=Agent it=Theme slope=Result

Option 3

by tossing it from a limb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 tossing	mark
2	tossing	toss	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 tossing	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 limb	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 limb	det
6	limb	limb	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tossing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	toss	gerund		it		a limb			vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Product from limb=Material

Option 4

by dropping it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 dropping	mark
2	dropping	drop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 dropping	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	gerund		it					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

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/e2/