Exam question 1 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Goose-Girl, part 63: the false br…

By what means did the waiting-maid secure the silence of the real bride upon their arrival at the palace?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: waiting maid, their · What happens: mean, secure, silence, arrive · To what, where: silence, palace, real bride

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1476 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Goose-Girl, part 63: the false bride takes the princess's place and is found out» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 secure	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 secure	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 maid	det
6	waiting	waiting	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 maid	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 waiting	punct
8	maid	maid	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secure	nsubj
9	secure	secure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 silence	det
11	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secure	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 bride	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 bride	det
14	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 bride	amod
15	bride	bride	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 silence	nmod
16	upon	upon	ADP	_	18 arrival	case
17	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 arrival	nmod:poss
18	arrival	arrival	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secure	obl
19	at	at	ADP	_	21 palace	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 palace	det
21	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secure	obl
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 secure	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	mean	present					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	secure	past · do-support	the waiting maid	the silence of the real bride	the palace	upon their arrival	vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent silence=Theme at palace=Asset
3	silence			the real bride			nom silence «state transitive»: of=patient
4	arrive		their = they				nom arrival «act 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

by an oath sworn upon heaven and the waiting-maid's own gold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 oath	case
2	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 oath	det
3	oath	oath	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	sworn	swear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 oath	acl
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 heaven	case
6	heaven	heaven	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sworn	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 gold	cc
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 maid	det
9	waiting	waiting	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 maid	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 waiting	punct
11	maid	maid	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 gold	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 maid	case
13	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 gold	amod
14	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 oath	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swear	participle		a oath and the waiting maid's own gold not said here				upon heaven	vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

by an oath sworn upon heaven

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 oath	case
2	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 oath	det
3	oath	oath	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	sworn	swear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 oath	acl
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 heaven	case
6	heaven	heaven	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sworn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swear	participle		a oath not said here				upon heaven	vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 3

through a threat of death

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	through	through	ADP	_	3 threat	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 threat	det
3	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 death	case
5	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 threat	nmod

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

Option 4

by a vow made to God

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 vow	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 vow	det
3	vow	vow	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 vow	acl
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 God	case
6	God	God	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 made	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	participle		a vow not said here					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

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/1476-pg503-part63/e1/