Exam question 2 · Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and the Crab, part 33: th…

Which action of the monkey directly caused the death of the old crab?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: action, monkey, old crab · What happens: cause, act, die · To what, where: death

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1373 «Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and the Crab, part 33: the monkey eats the ripe persimmons and kills the crab» 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	7 caused	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 monkey	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 monkey	det
5	monkey	monkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 action	nmod
6	directly	directly	ADV	_	7 caused	advmod
7	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 death	det
9	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 caused	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 crab	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 crab	det
12	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 crab	amod
13	crab	crab	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 death	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 caused	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	cause	past	which action of the monkey	the death of the old crab	directly property	vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition death=Patient
2	act		the monkey			nom action «act intransitive»: of=agent
3	die		the old crab			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

dropping a heavy branch on him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	dropping	drop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 branch	det
3	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 branch	amod
4	branch	branch	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 dropping	obj
5	on	on	ADP	_	6 him	case
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 dropping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	gerund		a heavy branch				on him = he	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent branch=Theme on he=Destination

Option 2

throwing a hard unripe fruit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	throwing	throw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 fruit	det
3	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 fruit	amod
4	unripe	unripe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 fruit	amod
5	fruit	fruit	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 throwing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	throw	gerund		a hard unripe fruit					vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fruit=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

striking him with an unripe persimmon

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 striking	obj
3	with	with	ADP	_	6 persimmon	case
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 persimmon	det
5	unripe	unripe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 persimmon	amod
6	persimmon	persimmon	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 striking	obl

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

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

throwing a stone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	throwing	throw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 stone	det
3	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 throwing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	throw	gerund		a stone					vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Theme

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.

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