Exam question 1 · Japanese Fairy Tales, The Tongue-Cut Sparrow, part 3: the…

Which action of the old woman is described as the direct cause of the sparrow's injury?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: old woman, sparrow · What happens: describe, act, cause, injure · To what, where: action, injury

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1343 «Japanese Fairy Tales, The Tongue-Cut Sparrow, part 3: the old man finds the sparrow, who is really a fairy» 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 action	det
2	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 described	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 woman	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 woman	det
5	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 woman	amod
6	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 action	nmod
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 described	aux:pass
8	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	as	as	ADP	_	12 cause	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 cause	det
11	direct	direct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 cause	amod
12	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 described	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	17 injury	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 sparrow	det
15	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 injury	nmod:poss
16	's	's	PART	_	15 sparrow	case
17	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 cause	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 described	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	describe	present · passive		which action of the old woman	as the direct cause of the sparrow's injury	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme as cause=Attribute
2	act		the old woman			nom action «act intransitive»: of=agent
3	cause			the sparrow's injury		nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
4	injure		the sparrow			nom injury «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

Striking the sparrow with a broom

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sparrow	det
3	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Striking	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 broom	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 broom	det
6	broom	broom	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Striking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	gerund		the sparrow				with a broom	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent sparrow=Patient with broom=Instrument

Option 2

Cutting off the sparrow's tongue with her sharp scissors after the starch incident

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cutting	cut	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	off	off	ADP	_	6 tongue	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sparrow	det
4	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tongue	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 sparrow	case
6	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Cutting	obl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 scissors	case
8	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 scissors	nmod:poss
9	sharp	sharp	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 scissors	amod
10	scissors	scissors	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Cutting	obl
11	after	after	ADP	_	14 incident	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 incident	det
13	starch	starch	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 incident	compound
14	incident	incident	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Cutting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut off	gerund		the sparrow's tongue			after the starch incident	with her sharp scissors	vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector tongue=Eventuality

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

Cutting off the sparrow's tongue with scissors

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cutting	cut	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	off	off	ADP	_	6 tongue	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sparrow	det
4	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tongue	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 sparrow	case
6	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Cutting	obl
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 scissors	case
8	scissors	scissors	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Cutting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut off	gerund		the sparrow's tongue				with scissors	vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector tongue=Eventuality

Option 4

Cutting the sparrow's tongue off with scissors while she was still crying

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cutting	cut	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sparrow	det
3	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tongue	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 sparrow	case
5	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Cutting	obj
6	off	off	ADP	_	1 Cutting	compound:prt
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 scissors	case
8	scissors	scissors	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Cutting	obl
9	while	while	SCONJ	_	13 crying	mark
10	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 crying	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 crying	aux
12	still	still	ADV	_	13 crying	advmod
13	crying	cry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Cutting	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut off	gerund		the sparrow's tongue				with scissors	vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector tongue=Eventuality
2	cry speech: express	past · progressive	she				still		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=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/1343-pg4018-part3/e1/