Exam question 4 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad: the Shifty Lad wins th…

What circumstance occasioned the princess to release the handkerchief and precipitate the death of her husband?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: circumstance, husband · What happens: occasion, release, precipitate, die · To what, where: princess, handkerchief, death

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1279 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad: the Shifty Lad wins the princess, then dies on the bridge of Dublin» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 circumstance	det
2	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 occasioned	nsubj
3	occasioned	occasion	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 princess	det
5	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 occasioned	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 release	mark
7	release	release	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 occasioned	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 handkerchief	det
9	handkerchief	handkerchief	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 release	obj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 precipitate	cc
11	precipitate	precipitate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 release	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 death	det
13	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 precipitate	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 husband	case
15	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 husband	nmod:poss
16	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 death	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 occasioned	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	occasion	past	what circumstance	the princess	tree rules
2	release	to-infinitive	what circumstance not said here	the handkerchief	vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer handkerchief=Source
3	precipitate	infinitive	what circumstance not said here	the death of circumstance's husband	tree rules
4	die		circumstance's husband		nom death «event 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

A shout that the king had fallen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 shout	det
2	shout	shout	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 fallen	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 king	det
5	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 fallen	nsubj
6	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 fallen	aux
7	fallen	fall	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	2 shout	appos

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fall	past · perfect	the king						vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

A fire alarm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 alarm	det
2	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 alarm	compound
3	alarm	alarm	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

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

A cry that the palace was burning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 cry	det
2	cry	cry	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 burning	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 palace	det
5	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 burning	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 burning	aux
7	burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 cry	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	past · progressive	the palace	a cry not said here					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent cry=Theme

Option 4

A sudden cry of alarm nearby

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 cry	det
2	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 cry	amod
3	cry	cry	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 alarm	case
5	alarm	alarm	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cry	nmod
6	nearby	nearby	ADV	_	3 cry	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cry		alarm						nom cry «communication intransitive»: of=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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