Exam question 4 · Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Muskrat: the sly muskra…

What is the purpose of the saying concerning the blue wink, as described in the passage?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: purpose, saying · What happens: be, concern, describe, purpose · To what, where: blue wink, saying, passage

This is exam question 4 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purpose	det
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 saying	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 saying	det
7	saying	saying	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 purpose	nmod
8	concerning	concern	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 described	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 wink	det
10	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 wink	amod
11	wink	wink	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 concerning	obj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 described	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 described	mark
14	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 saying	acl:relcl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 passage	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 passage	det
17	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 described	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is a	present	the purpose of the saying			tree rules
2	concern	gerund		the blue wink		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus wink=Experiencer
3	describe	participle		the saying not said here	the passage	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
4	purpose		the saying			nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: of=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

it describes a bird's wing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 describes	nsubj
2	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 bird	det
4	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wing	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 bird	case
6	wing	wing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present	it	a bird's wing					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent wing=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

to tell a bird's name

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 tell	mark
2	tell	tell	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 bird	det
4	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 name	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 bird	case
6	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tell	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	to-infinitive		a bird's name					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent name=Recipient
2	name		a bird						nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

it shows a bird's quick flight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 shows	nsubj
2	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 bird	det
4	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 flight	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 bird	case
6	quick	quick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 flight	amod
7	flight	flight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shows	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	it	a bird's quick flight					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent flight=Recipient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

it explains a bird's quick blink

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 explains	nsubj
2	explains	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 bird	det
4	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 blink	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 bird	case
6	quick	quick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 blink	amod
7	blink	blink	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 explains	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	present	it	a bird's quick blink					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blink=Topic
2	blink		a bird						nom blink «act 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/1266-pg338-part3/e4/