Exam question 1 · Breton Tales, Barbaik, part 61: the brownie does all the w…

Which phrase describes the means by which Barbaik obtained her household comforts?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: phrase, the, Barbaik · What happens: describe, mean, obtain, comfort · To what, where: household comforts · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1336 «Breton Tales, Barbaik, part 61: the brownie does all the work and Barbaik agrees to marry Jegu» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 describes	nsubj
3	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 means	nsubj
5	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 describes	ccomp
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 obtained	obl
8	Barbaik	Barbaik	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 obtained	nsubj
9	obtained	obtain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 means	ccomp
10	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 comforts	nmod:poss
11	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 comforts	compound
12	comforts	comfort	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 obtained	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	describe	present	which phrase		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	obtain	past	Barbaik	Barbaik's household comforts	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent comfort=Theme
4	comfort		Barbaik		nom comfort «state transitive»: 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 · ← Mova's choice

by means of wishes spoken at the spring close by

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	2 means	case
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 wishes	case
4	wishes	wish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 means	obl
5	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 wishes	acl
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 spring	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 spring	det
8	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spoken	obl
9	close	close	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 spring	amod
10	by	by	ADP	_	9 close	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present						of wishes	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	speak speech: other	participle		wishes not said here			spring		vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

by means of the brownie's secret help at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	2 means	case
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	8 help	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 brownie	det
5	brownie	brownie	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 help	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 brownie	case
7	secret	secret	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 help	amod
8	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 means	obl
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 night	case
10	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present					night	of the brownie's secret help	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	help		the brownie						nom help «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

by means of her father's gifts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	2 means	case
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 gifts	case
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 father	nmod:poss
5	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 gifts	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 father	case
7	gifts	gift	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present						of her father's gifts	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	gift		her father						nom gift «possession transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

by means of her spoken wishes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	2 means	case
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 wishes	case
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 wishes	nmod:poss
5	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 wishes	amod
6	wishes	wish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	mean	present		of her spoken wishes	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	speak speech: other	participle			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	wish		her = she		nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=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/1336-pg3454-part61/e1/