Exam question 3 · Irish Fairy Tales, The Enchanted Bear, part 21: the prince…

What was the purpose of the scissors that the husband bestowed upon the princess before his departure?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: husband · What happens: be, bestow, depart · To what, where: purpose, scissors

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1296 «Irish Fairy Tales, The Enchanted Bear, part 21: the princess loses her children one by one, then follows her husband on the last journey» 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	4 purpose	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 purpose	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purpose	det
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 scissors	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 scissors	det
7	scissors	scissors	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 purpose	nmod
8	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 bestowed	nsubj
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 husband	det
10	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 bestowed	nsubj:pass
11	bestowed	bestow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 scissors	acl:relcl
12	upon	upon	ADP	_	14 princess	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 princess	det
14	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 bestowed	obl
15	before	before	ADP	_	17 departure	case
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 departure	nmod:poss
17	departure	departure	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 bestowed	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 purpose	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the purpose		of the scissors	tree rules
2	bestow	participle · passive		the scissors	before husband's departure	upon the princess	tree rules
3	depart		husband				nom departure «act intransitive»: 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

It turned any material it cut into fine silk garments

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 turned	nsubj
2	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	4 material	det
4	material	material	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 turned	obj
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 cut	nsubj
6	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 material	acl:relcl
7	into	into	ADP	_	10 garments	case
8	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 garments	amod
9	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 garments	compound
10	garments	garment	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 cut	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	past	It	any material					vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme material=Result
2	cut	past	material	any material not said here		fine silk garments			vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent material=Material into garment=Product

Option 2

Any cloth they snipped would change into costly silk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	2 cloth	det
2	cloth	cloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 change	nsubj
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 snipped	nsubj
4	snipped	snip	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 cloth	acl:relcl
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 change	aux
6	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	into	into	ADP	_	9 silk	case
8	costly	costly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 silk	amod
9	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 change	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	snip	past	they	any cloth not said here					vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cloth=Patient
2	change	would	any cloth					into costly silk result	vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: agent=Patient into silk=Result

Option 3

It was meant to be used to cut the bear's hide so that the skin turned into silk and freed her husband from the spell at last

The tree, 28 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 meant	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 meant	aux:pass
3	meant	mean	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	6 used	mark
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 used	aux:pass
6	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 meant	xcomp
7	to	to	PART	_	8 cut	mark
8	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 used	xcomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 bear	det
10	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 hide	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 bear	case
12	hide	hide	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 cut	obj
13	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	17 turned	mark
14	that	that	SCONJ	_	13 so	fixed
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 skin	det
16	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 turned	nsubj
17	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 cut	advcl
18	into	into	ADP	_	19 silk	case
19	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 turned	obl
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 freed	cc
21	freed	free	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 meant	conj
22	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 husband	nmod:poss
23	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 freed	obj
24	from	from	ADP	_	26 spell	case
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 spell	det
26	spell	spell	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 freed	obl
27	at	at	ADP	_	28 last	case
28	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 freed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	mean	past · passive		It			tree rules
2	use not said to happen	to-infinitive · passive					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: clause=Eventuality
3	cut	to-infinitive		the bear's hide			vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset hide=Product
4	turn	past	the skin		silk		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into silk=Trajectory
5	free	past		skin's husband	the spell	at last	vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer husband=Source

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Whatever cloth was cut with them was transformed into silk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whatever	whatever	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 transformed	nsubj:pass
2	cloth	cloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cut	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 cut	aux:pass
4	cut	cut	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Whatever	acl:relcl
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 them	case
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 cut	obl
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 transformed	aux:pass
8	transformed	transform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	into	into	ADP	_	10 silk	case
10	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 transformed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut	past · passive		cloth				with them = they	vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient with they=Instrument
2	transform	past · passive		Whatever				into silk result	vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: subject=Patient into silk=Result

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/1296-pg3454-part21/e3/