Exam question 4 · Arabian Nights, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, part 58: M…

What pretext did the Captain offer for declining the salted victuals at supper?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: pretext · What happens: do, decline, salt · To what, where: Captain offer, salted victuals, supper

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1471 «Arabian Nights, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, part 58: Morgiana foils the robbers' attack and dances at supper» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 pretext	det
2	pretext	pretext	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 offer	det
5	Captain	Captain	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 offer	compound
6	offer	offer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 declining	mark
8	declining	decline	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 did	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 victuals	det
10	salted	salt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 victuals	amod
11	victuals	victual	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 declining	obj
12	at	at	ADP	_	13 supper	case
13	supper	supper	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 declining	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	do	past	what pretext	the Captain offer		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent offer=Eventuality
2	decline	gerund	what pretext not said here	the salted victuals	supper	vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent victual=Theme
3	salt	participle				vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=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

He said no

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 said	nsubj
2	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	2 said	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He stated that he could eat no salt

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 stated	nsubj
2	stated	state	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 eat	mark
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 eat	nsubj
5	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 eat	aux
6	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 stated	ccomp
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 salt	det
8	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	past	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	eat	could	he	no salt					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent salt=Patient

Option 3

He claimed salt was a poison

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 claimed	nsubj
2	claimed	claim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 poison	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 poison	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 poison	det
6	poison	poison	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 claimed	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	claim speech: other	past	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	salt	a poison					tree rules

Option 4

He had no appetite

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 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 appetite	det
4	appetite	appetite	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	He	no appetite					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent appetite=Patient

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/1471-pg503-part58/e4/