Exam question 3 · Project Gutenberg pg503, Princess Miranda, part 51: the Ki…

What was the Captain's stated preference regarding his own death?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: stated preference, Captain, his · What happens: be, state, regard, prefer, die

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1464 «Project Gutenberg pg503, Princess Miranda, part 51: the King orders Miranda killed, and her faithful animals die for her» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Captain	det
4	Captain	Captain	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 preference	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Captain	case
6	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 preference	amod
7	preference	preference	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
8	regarding	regard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 death	case
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 death	nmod:poss
10	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 death	amod
11	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 preference	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the Captain's stated preference regard his own death		tree rules
2	state speech: other	participle			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	regard	gerund			vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	prefer		the Captain	regard his own death	nom preference «feeling transitive»: poss=agent regard=obl
5	die		his = he		nom death «event 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 · ✓ the right answer

He would rather die himself than harm her

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	4 die	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 die	aux
3	rather	rather	ADV	_	4 die	advmod
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 die	obj
6	than	than	SCONJ	_	7 harm	mark
7	harm	harm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 die	advcl
8	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 harm	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	would	He	himself = he					tree rules
2	harm	infinitive	He not said here	her = she					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer

Option 2

He would rather die himself than harm her, and he said so

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	4 die	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 die	aux
3	rather	rather	ADV	_	4 die	advmod
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 die	obj
6	than	than	SCONJ	_	7 harm	mark
7	harm	harm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 die	advcl
8	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 harm	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 said	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 said	cc
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 said	nsubj
12	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 die	conj
13	so	so	ADV	_	12 said	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	die	would	He	himself = he	tree rules
2	harm	infinitive	He not said here	her = she	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer
3	say speech: assert	past	he		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He would prefer to become a shepherd

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	3 prefer	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 prefer	aux
3	prefer	prefer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 become	mark
5	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 prefer	xcomp
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 shepherd	det
7	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prefer	would	He						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	become not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here	a shepherd					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4

He would rather flee the kingdom than serve

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	4 flee	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 flee	aux
3	rather	rather	ADV	_	4 flee	advmod
4	flee	flee	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 kingdom	det
6	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 flee	obj
7	than	than	ADP	_	8 serve	case
8	serve	serve	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 flee	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flee	would	He	the kingdom				than serve	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme kingdom=Initial_Location

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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