Exam question 2 · Violet Fairy Book, The Fish of the Fountain: a girl feeds…

To whom did the cock's message, in the tale, actually refer when it described the death of the fish?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, message, fish · What happens: do, refer, describe, die · To what, where: message, death

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1312 «Violet Fairy Book, The Fish of the Fountain: a girl feeds a fish, he is eaten, and his bones grow into a magic tree» 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	To	to	SCONJ	_	3 did	mark
2	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 refer	advcl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cock	det
5	cock	cock	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 message	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 cock	case
7	message	message	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 tale	punct
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 tale	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 tale	det
11	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 message	appos
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct
13	actually	actually	ADV	_	14 refer	advmod
14	refer	refer	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
15	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	17 described	advmod
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 described	nsubj
17	described	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 refer	advcl
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 death	det
19	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 described	obj
20	of	of	ADP	_	22 fish	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 fish	det
22	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 death	nmod
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	14 refer	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past		the cock's message		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent message=Eventuality
2	refer	imperative	you not said here		actually property	vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme
3	describe	past	message	the death of the fish		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent death=Theme
4	die		the fish			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 · ← Mova's choice

Djulung, dead in the fire.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Djulung	Djulung	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 dead	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Djulung	punct
3	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 fire	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 fire	det
6	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 dead	obl
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 dead	punct

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

Option 2

Djulung, whose bones lay by the fountain.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Djulung	Djulung	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 lay	punct
3	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	4 bones	nmod:poss
4	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 lay	nsubj
5	lay	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Djulung	parataxis
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 fountain	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 fountain	det
8	fountain	fountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lay	obl
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Djulung	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lay	present	bones					by the fountain	vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent by fountain=Destination

Option 3

The fish, under the stove.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 stove	punct
4	under	under	ADP	_	6 stove	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 stove	det
6	stove	stove	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fish	conj
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 fish	punct

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Djulung, whose bones lay under the kitchen fire.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Djulung	Djulung	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 lay	punct
3	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	4 bones	nmod:poss
4	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 lay	nsubj
5	lay	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Djulung	parataxis
6	under	under	ADP	_	9 fire	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 fire	det
8	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 fire	compound
9	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lay	obl
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Djulung	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lay	present	bones			the kitchen fire			vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent under fire=Destination

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/1312-pg3454-part37/e2/