Exam question 2 · Indian Fairy Tales, Iya the Camp-Eater, part 10: the stole…

What reason did the toad mother advance for her inability to retain the child?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason · What happens: do, retain · To what, where: toad mother advance, child

This is exam question 2 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 did	obj
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 advance	det
5	toad	toad	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 advance	compound
6	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 advance	compound
7	advance	advance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
8	for	for	ADP	_	10 inability	case
9	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 inability	nmod:poss
10	inability	inability	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 retain	mark
12	retain	retain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 inability	acl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 child	det
14	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 retain	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	reason	the toad mother advance				for reason's inability	tree rules
2	retain	to-infinitive	reason not said here	the 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 · ✓ the right answer

The child had perceived and beheld his true mother

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 child	det
2	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 perceived	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 perceived	aux
4	perceived	perceive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 beheld	cc
6	beheld	behold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 perceived	conj
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 mother	nmod:poss
8	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 mother	amod
9	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 beheld	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perceive	past · perfect · passive		the child					vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus
2	behold	participle		child's true mother					vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mother=Stimulus

Option 2

The boy had encountered his true family near the shore

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 boy	det
2	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 encountered	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 encountered	aux
4	encountered	encounter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 family	nmod:poss
6	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 family	amod
7	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 encountered	obj
8	near	near	ADP	_	10 shore	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 shore	det
10	shore	shore	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 encountered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	encounter	past · perfect · passive		the boy		the shore			tree rules

Option 3

He was too heavy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 heavy	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 heavy	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 heavy	advmod
4	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	He					heavy property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He wanted to go home

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 go	mark
4	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
5	home	home	ADV	_	4 go	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	He						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	go not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here					home property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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/1273-pg338-part10/e2/