Exam question 1 · Popular Tales from the Norse, The Mill, part 33: a skipper…

In what manner did the poor man acquire the hand-mill?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: poor man · What happens: acquire · To what, where: hand mill, manner

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1446 «Popular Tales from the Norse, The Mill, part 33: a skipper buys the magic mill for salt» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 acquire	obl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 acquire	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 man	det
6	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 man	amod
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 acquire	nsubj
8	acquire	acquire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 mill	det
10	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 mill	compound
11	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 hand	punct
12	mill	mill	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 acquire	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 acquire	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acquire	past · do-support	the poor man	the hand mill		what manner			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mill=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

By selling his horse for gold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 selling	mark
2	selling	sell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 horse	nmod:poss
4	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 selling	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 gold	case
6	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 selling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sell	gerund		his horse				for gold	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent horse=Theme for gold=Asset

Option 2

By exchanging his ham for it at the door of the rich brother's house

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 exchanging	mark
2	exchanging	exchange	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 ham	nmod:poss
4	ham	ham	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exchanging	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 it	case
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 exchanging	obl
7	at	at	ADP	_	9 door	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 door	det
9	door	door	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exchanging	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	15 house	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 brother	det
12	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 brother	amod
13	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 house	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 brother	case
15	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 door	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exchange	gerund		his ham		the door of the rich brother's house		for ham	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent ham=Theme for it=Co-Theme

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

By exchanging his ham for it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 exchanging	mark
2	exchanging	exchange	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 ham	nmod:poss
4	ham	ham	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exchanging	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 it	case
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 exchanging	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exchange	gerund		his ham				for ham	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent ham=Theme for it=Co-Theme

Option 4

By trading his cow for it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 trading	mark
2	trading	trade	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 cow	nmod:poss
4	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 trading	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 it	case
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 trading	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	trade	gerund		his cow				for it	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent cow=Theme for it=Co-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/1446-pg503-part33/e1/