Exam question 2 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, part 2: the boy become…

By what stratagem did the Shifty Lad procure the knowledge of his future trade?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: Shifty Lad, Lad · What happens: procure, trade · To what, where: knowledge

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1277 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, part 2: the boy becomes a thief's apprentice and robs a farmer at Hallowe'en» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	8 procure	obl
3	stratagem	stratagem	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	nsubj
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 procure	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Lad	det
6	Shifty	shifty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 Lad	amod
7	Lad	Lad	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 procure	nsubj
8	procure	procure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 knowledge	det
10	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 procure	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 trade	case
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 trade	nmod:poss
13	future	future	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 trade	amod
14	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 knowledge	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 procure	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	procure	past · do-support	the Shifty Lad	the knowledge of Lad's future trade					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knowledge=Theme
2	trade		Lad						nom trade «act transitive»: poss=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

by disguising his voice to call "Robbery!" from the bushes at night

The tree, 12 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 disguising	mark
2	disguising	disguise	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 voice	nmod:poss
4	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 disguising	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 call	mark
6	call	call	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 disguising	advcl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 Robbery	punct
8	Robbery	robbery	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 call	obj
9	!	!	PUNCT	_	8 Robbery	punct
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 Robbery	punct
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 bushes	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 bushes	det
13	bushes	bush	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 call	obl
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 night	case
15	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 call	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disguise	gerund		his voice					vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme voice=Destination
2	call	to-infinitive		Robbery		the bushes	night		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent robbery=Theme from bush=Source

Option 2

by pretending to be the farmer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 pretending	mark
2	pretending	pretend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	6 farmer	mark
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 farmer	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 farmer	det
6	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pretending	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pretend	gerund							tree rules
2	is a	to-infinitive		the farmer					tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

by disguising his voice to call "Robbery!"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 disguising	mark
2	disguising	disguise	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 voice	nmod:poss
4	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 disguising	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 call	mark
6	call	call	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 disguising	advcl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 Robbery	punct
8	Robbery	robbery	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 call	obj
9	!	!	PUNCT	_	8 Robbery	punct
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 Robbery	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disguise	gerund		his voice					vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme voice=Destination
2	call	to-infinitive		Robbery					vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent robbery=Recipient

Option 4

by lying to his mother's face

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 lying	mark
2	lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	7 face	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 mother	nmod:poss
5	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 face	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 mother	case
7	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	gerund						to his mother's face	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=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.

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