Exam question 2 · Myths and Legends of China, The Shinansha, or the South Po…

By what means did the Emperor Kotei overcome the fog employed by the rebel Shiyu?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Emperor Kotei · What happens: mean, overcome, employ · To what, where: fog · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1349 «Myths and Legends of China, The Shinansha, or the South Pointing Carriage, part 9: Kotei beats the fog and crosses the river in boats made after a spider's leaf» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 overcome	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Kotei	det
6	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Kotei	compound
7	Kotei	Kotei	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 overcome	nsubj
8	overcome	overcome	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 fog	det
10	fog	fog	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 overcome	obj
11	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 fog	acl
12	by	by	ADP	_	14 rebel	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 rebel	det
14	rebel	rebel	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 employed	obl
15	Shiyu	Shiyu	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 rebel	appos
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	overcome	past · do-support	the Emperor Kotei	the fog		vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot fog=Theme
3	employ	participle		the fog not said here	by the rebel	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=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 sending scouts ahead through the thick forest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 sending	mark
2	sending	send	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	scouts	scout	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sending	obj
4	ahead	ahead	ADV	_	2 sending	advmod
5	through	through	ADP	_	8 forest	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 forest	det
7	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 forest	amod
8	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sending	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	gerund		scouts		the thick forest		ahead property	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scout=Theme

Option 2

by calling on the spirits of the North Star and waiting for the fog to lift

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 calling	mark
2	calling	call	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 spirits	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 spirits	det
5	spirits	spirit	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 calling	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 Star	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Star	det
8	North	North	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Star	compound
9	Star	Star	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 spirits	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 waiting	cc
11	waiting	wait	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 calling	conj
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 fog	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 fog	det
14	fog	fog	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 waiting	obl
15	to	to	PART	_	16 lift	mark
16	lift	lift	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 waiting	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	where	other	roles by
1	call	gerund	the spirits of the North Star		vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	wait	gerund		for the fog	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	lift	to-infinitive			vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

by consulting the shinansha, which indicated the south

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 consulting	mark
2	consulting	consult	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 shinansha	det
4	shinansha	shinansha	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 consulting	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 indicated	punct
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 indicated	nsubj
7	indicated	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 shinansha	acl:relcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 south	det
9	south	south	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 indicated	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consult	gerund		the shinansha					vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shinansha=Theme
2	indicate	past	the shinansha	the south					vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot south=Topic

Option 4

by sending out scouts who searched the thick fog for three long days

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 sending	mark
2	sending	send	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	out	out	ADP	_	2 sending	compound:prt
4	scouts	scout	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sending	obj
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 searched	nsubj
6	searched	search	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 scouts	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 fog	det
8	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 fog	amod
9	fog	fog	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 searched	obj
10	for	for	ADP	_	13 days	case
11	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 days	nummod
12	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 days	amod
13	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 searched	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send out	gerund		scouts					vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scout=Theme
2	search	past	scouts	the thick fog			day		vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent fog=Location

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/1349-pg4018-part9/e2/