Exam question 3 · Yellow Fairy Book, The Yellow Dwarf, part 12: the Mermaid'…

By what means did the Mermaid render the counterfeit monarch lifelike?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do, render · To what, where: Mermaid, monarch lifelike · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1425 «Yellow Fairy Book, The Yellow Dwarf, part 12: the Mermaid's trick, the diamond sword, and the King's fight to reach Bellissima» 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	7 render	advcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Mermaid	det
6	Mermaid	Mermaid	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	render	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 lifelike	det
9	counterfeit	counterfeit	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 monarch	compound
10	monarch	monarch	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lifelike	compound
11	lifelike	lifelike	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 render	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 render	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past	the Mermaid	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mermaid=Eventuality
3	render	present	the monarch lifelike	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lifelike=Theme

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 blowing upon the sea-weed three times and speaking a spell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 blowing	mark
2	blowing	blow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 weed	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 weed	det
5	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 weed	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 sea	punct
7	weed	weed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 blowing	obl
8	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 times	nummod
9	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 blowing	obl:unmarked
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 speaking	cc
11	speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 blowing	conj
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 spell	det
13	spell	spell	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 speaking	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blow	gerund					time	upon the sea weed	vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient
2	speak speech: other	gerund		a spell					tree rules

Option 2

By blowing upon the sea-weed three times and calling its name aloud at dusk

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 blowing	mark
2	blowing	blow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 weed	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 weed	det
5	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 weed	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 sea	punct
7	weed	weed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 blowing	obl
8	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 times	nummod
9	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 blowing	obl:unmarked
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 calling	cc
11	calling	call	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 blowing	conj
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 name	nmod:poss
13	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 calling	obj
14	aloud	aloud	ADV	_	11 calling	advmod
15	at	at	ADP	_	16 dusk	case
16	dusk	dusk	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 calling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	blow	gerund			time	upon the sea weed	vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient
2	call	gerund		weed's name	dusk	aloud property	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent name=Recipient
3	name		weed				nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

By singing to the sea-weed nymphs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 singing	mark
2	singing	sing	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	8 nymphs	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 nymphs	det
5	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 weed	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 sea	punct
7	weed	weed	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 nymphs	compound
8	nymphs	nymph	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 singing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sing speech: express	gerund			the weed nymphs				vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to nymph=Recipient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

By blowing upon the sea-weed three times and issuing a command

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 blowing	mark
2	blowing	blow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 weed	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 weed	det
5	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 weed	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 sea	punct
7	weed	weed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 blowing	obl
8	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 times	nummod
9	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 blowing	obl:unmarked
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 issuing	cc
11	issuing	issue	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 blowing	conj
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 command	det
13	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 issuing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blow	gerund					time	upon the sea weed	vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient
2	issue	gerund		a command					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location command=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1425-pg503-part12/e3/