Exam question 4 · Yellow Fairy Book, The Yellow Dwarf, part 12: the Mermaid'…

Upon what grounds did the King hesitate before accepting the Mermaid's proposal?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: Mermaid · What happens: ground, do, accept, propose · To what, where: King hesitate, proposal

This is exam question 4 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	Upon	upon	SCONJ	_	3 grounds	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 grounds	nsubj
3	grounds	ground	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 grounds	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hesitate	det
6	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 hesitate	compound
7	hesitate	hesitate	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	9 accepting	mark
9	accepting	accept	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 did	advcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Mermaid	det
11	Mermaid	Mermaid	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 proposal	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 Mermaid	case
13	proposal	proposal	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 accepting	obj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 grounds	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ground	present			tree rules
2	do	past		the King hesitate	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hesitate=Eventuality
3	accept	gerund		the Mermaid's proposal	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent proposal=Theme
4	propose		the Mermaid		nom proposal «communication intransitive»: 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 · ✓ the right answer

He suspected it was a deception contrived by the Fairy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 suspected	nsubj
2	suspected	suspect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 deception	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 deception	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 deception	det
6	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 suspected	ccomp
7	contrived	contrive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 deception	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 Fairy	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Fairy	det
10	Fairy	fairy	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 contrived	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	suspect	past	He			vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	it	a deception		tree rules
3	contrive	participle		a deception not said here	by the Fairy	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He doubted the Queen's word here

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 doubted	nsubj
2	doubted	doubt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Queen	det
4	Queen	Queen	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 word	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Queen	case
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 doubted	obj
7	here	here	ADV	PronType=Dem	2 doubted	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	doubt	past	He	the Queen's word		here			vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
2	word		the Queen						nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

He suspected it was a deception contrived by the wicked Fairy and her sisters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 suspected	nsubj
2	suspected	suspect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 deception	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 deception	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 deception	det
6	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 suspected	ccomp
7	contrived	contrive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 deception	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	11 Fairy	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Fairy	det
10	wicked	wicked	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 Fairy	amod
11	Fairy	fairy	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 contrived	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 sisters	cc
13	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 sisters	nmod:poss
14	sisters	sister	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 Fairy	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	suspect	past	He			vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	it	a deception		tree rules
3	contrive	participle		a deception not said here	by the wicked Fairy and her sisters	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

He suspected it was a cruel deception contrived by the Fairy at the castle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 suspected	nsubj
2	suspected	suspect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 deception	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 deception	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 deception	det
6	cruel	cruel	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 deception	amod
7	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 suspected	ccomp
8	contrived	contrive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 deception	acl
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 Fairy	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Fairy	det
11	Fairy	fairy	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 contrived	obl
12	at	at	ADP	_	14 castle	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 castle	det
14	castle	castle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 suspected	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	suspect	past	He		the castle		vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	it	a cruel deception			tree rules
3	contrive	participle		a cruel deception not said here		by the Fairy	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: 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/1425-pg503-part12/e4/