Exam question 2 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Three Crowns, part 17: the younges…

Upon what grounds did Seven Inches approve of the prince at supper?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: grounds, Seven Inches · What happens: do, approve · To what, where: supper

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1292 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Three Crowns, part 17: the youngest prince goes down the well and the pair escape the giants» 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	Upon	upon	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 approve	obl
3	grounds	grounds	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
5	Seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 Inches	nummod
6	Inches	inch	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 approve	nsubj
7	approve	approve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 prince	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 prince	det
10	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 approve	obl
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 supper	case
12	supper	supper	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 approve	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 approve	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	grounds						vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	approve	present	Seven Inches			supper		of the prince	vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

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

Because he sat quietly at the table

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	3 sat	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sat	nsubj
3	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	quietly	quietly	ADV	_	3 sat	advmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 table	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 table	det
7	table	table	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sat	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit	past	he			the table		quietly property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at table=Location

Option 2

Because he had been told by his mother that it was the custom to wait for the host

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	5 told	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 told	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 told	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 told	aux:pass
5	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 mother	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 mother	nmod:poss
8	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 told	obl
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	13 custom	mark
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 custom	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 custom	cop
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 custom	det
13	custom	custom	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 mother	acl
14	to	to	PART	_	15 wait	mark
15	wait	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 told	ccomp
16	for	for	ADP	_	18 host	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 host	det
18	host	host	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 wait	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past · perfect · passive	his mother	he		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	is a	past	it	the custom		tree rules
3	wait not said to happen	to-infinitive			for the host	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Because he awaited an invitation to eat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	3 awaited	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 awaited	nsubj
3	awaited	await	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 invitation	det
5	invitation	invitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 awaited	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 eat	mark
7	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 invitation	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	await	past	he	a invitation					tree rules
2	eat	to-infinitive	he not said here	a invitation not said here					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Because he was very well mannered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	6 mannered	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 mannered	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 mannered	cop
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 well	advmod
5	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 mannered	advmod
6	mannered	mannered	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

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

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/1292-pg3454-part17/e2/