Exam question 1 · Indian Fairy Tales, Iya the Camp-Eater, part 10: the stole…

In what manner did the elder toad endeavour to retain the human child?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: do, retain · To what, where: elder toad endeavour, manner, human child

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1273 «Indian Fairy Tales, Iya the Camp-Eater, part 10: the stolen boy is found by his parents, and a wood-child is adopted by a chieftain» 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	8 endeavour	det
6	elder	elder	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 endeavour	amod
7	toad	toad	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 endeavour	compound
8	endeavour	endeavour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 retain	mark
10	retain	retain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 endeavour	acl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 child	det
12	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 child	amod
13	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 retain	obj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		the elder toad endeavour		what manner			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent endeavour=Eventuality
2	retain	to-infinitive		the human child					tree rules

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

By singing softly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 singing	mark
2	singing	sing	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	softly	softly	ADV	_	2 singing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sing speech: express	gerund						softly property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

By hooting a hollow tune in imitation of his mother's voice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 hooting	mark
2	hooting	hoot	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 tune	det
4	hollow	hollow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 tune	amod
5	tune	tune	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hooting	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 imitation	case
7	imitation	imitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hooting	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	12 voice	case
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 mother	nmod:poss
10	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 voice	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 mother	case
12	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 imitation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hoot	gerund		a hollow tune		imitation of his mother's voice			vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tune=Theme
2	imitate			his mother's voice					nom imitation «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

By wailing a coarse song that imitated a distant mourning chant

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 wailing	mark
2	wailing	wail	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 song	det
4	coarse	coarse	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 song	amod
5	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wailing	obj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 imitated	nsubj
7	imitated	imitate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 song	acl:relcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 chant	det
9	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 chant	amod
10	mourning	mourning	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 chant	compound
11	chant	chant	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 imitated	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wail	gerund		a coarse song					vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent song=Theme
2	imitate	past	a coarse song	a distant mourning chant					vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chant=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

By emitting a gruff imitation of a Dakota lament

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 emitting	mark
2	emitting	emit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 imitation	det
4	gruff	gruff	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 imitation	amod
5	imitation	imitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 emitting	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 lament	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 lament	det
8	Dakota	Dakota	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 lament	compound
9	lament	lament	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 imitation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	emit	gerund		a gruff imitation of a Dakota lament					vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source imitation=Theme
2	imitate			a Dakota lament					nom imitation «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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/1273-pg338-part10/e1/