Exam question 2 · Finnish Tales, The Water-Lily Maiden, part 42: the Prince…

Upon what grounds did the Prince resolve to restore the maiden to her original form?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: her · What happens: ground, do, restore, form · To what, where: Prince resolve, maiden, original form

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1455 «Finnish Tales, The Water-Lily Maiden, part 42: the Prince dives into the river as a 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	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 resolve	det
6	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 resolve	compound
7	resolve	resolve	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 restore	mark
9	restore	restore	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 resolve	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 maiden	det
11	maiden	maiden	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 restore	obj
12	to	to	ADP	_	15 form	case
13	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 form	nmod:poss
14	original	original	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 form	amod
15	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 restore	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 grounds	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	ground	present				tree rules
2	do	past		the Prince resolve		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent resolve=Eventuality
3	restore	to-infinitive		the maiden	her original form	vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent maiden=Theme to form=Recipient
4	form		her = she			nom form «communication transitive»: 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

Fearing that his life would be empty without her, he chose the danger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fearing	fear	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 chose	advcl
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 empty	mark
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 life	nmod:poss
4	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 empty	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 empty	aux
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 empty	cop
7	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Fearing	advcl
8	without	without	ADP	_	9 her	case
9	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 empty	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Fearing	punct
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 chose	nsubj
12	chose	choose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 danger	det
14	danger	danger	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 chose	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	fear	gerund	he not said here			vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	is	would	his life		without her = she; empty property	tree rules
3	choose	past	he	the danger		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent danger=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Death being preferable to unending sorrow, he resolved to act

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 preferable	nsubj
2	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 preferable	cop
3	preferable	preferable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 sorrow	case
5	unending	unending	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 sorrow	amod
6	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 preferable	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 resolved	punct
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 resolved	nsubj
9	resolved	resolve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 preferable	conj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 act	mark
11	act	act	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 resolved	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	gerund	Death	to unending sorrow; preferable property	tree rules
2	resolve	past	he		tree rules
3	act	to-infinitive	he not said here		vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

For love alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	For	for	ADP	_	2 love	case
2	love	love	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 love	advmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

He wanted to die

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 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 die	mark
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	He						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	die not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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/1455-pg503-part42/e2/