Exam question 4 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, Faithful John, John is turned to ston…

Which object did John employ to slay the chestnut horse?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: object · What happens: employ, slay · To what, where: chestnut horse

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1483 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Faithful John, John is turned to stone and brought back at a dreadful price» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 object	det
2	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 employ	nsubj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 employ	aux
4	John	John	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 employ	nsubj
5	employ	employ	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 slay	mark
7	slay	slay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 employ	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 horse	det
9	chestnut	chestnut	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 horse	compound
10	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 slay	obj
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 employ	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	past · do-support	which object						vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Attribute
2	slay	to-infinitive	which object not said here	the chestnut horse					vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient

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

A long musket that he had carried through the whole campaign in the north

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 musket	det
2	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 musket	amod
3	musket	musket	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 carried	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 carried	nsubj
6	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 carried	aux
7	carried	carry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	3 musket	acl
8	through	through	ADP	_	11 campaign	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 campaign	det
10	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 campaign	amod
11	campaign	campaign	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 carried	obl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 north	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 north	det
14	north	north	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 campaign	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	past · perfect	he	a long musket not said here		the whole campaign in the north			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent musket=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

A hunting bow with arrows

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 bow	det
2	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bow	compound
3	bow	bow	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 arrows	case
5	arrows	arrow	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 bow	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A pistol drawn from its holster

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 pistol	det
2	pistol	pistol	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 pistol	acl
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 holster	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 holster	nmod:poss
6	holster	holster	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drawn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	participle		a pistol not said here				from pistol's holster	vn split-23.2 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient from holster=Co-Patient

Option 4

A crossbow loaded with bolts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 crossbow	det
2	crossbow	crossbow	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	loaded	load	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 crossbow	acl
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 bolts	case
5	bolts	bolt	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 loaded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	load	participle		a crossbow not said here				with bolts	vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent with bolt=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/1483-pg503-part70/e4/