Exam question 3 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, part 2: the boy become…

On which night, and in what manner, did the principal robbery of the farmer's chest transpire?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: principal robbery · What happens: do, transpire · To what, where: principal robbery

This is exam question 3 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	On	on	ADP	_	3 night	case
2	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	3 night	det
3	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 did	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 manner	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 manner	cc
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 manner	case
7	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	8 manner	det
8	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 night	conj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 night	punct
10	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 robbery	det
12	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 robbery	amod
13	robbery	robbery	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 did	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	18 chest	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 farmer	det
16	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 chest	nmod:poss
17	's	's	PART	_	16 farmer	case
18	chest	chest	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 transpire	obl
19	transpire	transpire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 robbery	acl:relcl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	10 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		the principal robbery			night		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent robbery=Eventuality
2	transpire	infinitive	the principal robbery not said here					of the farmer's chest	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

on Hallowe'en, while the household was distracted

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	on	on	ADP	_	2 Hallowe'en	case
2	Hallowe'en	Hallowe'en	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Hallowe'en	punct
4	while	while	SCONJ	_	8 distracted	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 household	det
6	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 distracted	nsubj:pass
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 distracted	aux:pass
8	distracted	distract	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 Hallowe'en	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	distract	past · passive	Hallowe'en not said here	the household					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer

Option 2

at midnight in the cold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	at	at	ADP	_	2 midnight	case
2	midnight	midnight	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 cold	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cold	det
5	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 midnight	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

in the morning, while the dog was sleeping by the fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	in	in	ADP	_	3 morning	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 morning	det
3	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 sleeping	punct
5	while	while	SCONJ	_	9 sleeping	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 dog	det
7	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 sleeping	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 sleeping	aux
9	sleeping	sleep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 morning	acl
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 fire	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 fire	det
12	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 sleeping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sleep	past · progressive	the dog	the morning not said here				by the fire	vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent morning=Theme

Option 4

on a dark night, while all slept

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	on	on	ADP	_	4 night	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 night	det
3	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 night	amod
4	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 night	punct
6	while	while	SCONJ	_	7 all	mark
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 night	nmod
8	slept	sleep	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 all	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sleep	participle							vn snooze-40.4-1 «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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1277-pg3454-part2/e3/