Exam question 4 · Scottish Fairy Tales, The Red Etin, part 90: the youngest…

Which object did the elder brother entrust to the youngest, and for what purpose was it intended?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: object · What happens: do, entrust, intend · To what, where: elder brother, youngest, purpose

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1503 «Scottish Fairy Tales, The Red Etin, part 90: the youngest brother gets a magic wand, beats the Etin and frees the king's daughter» 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	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 brother	det
5	elder	elder	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 brother	amod
6	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
7	entrust	entrust	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 did	xcomp
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 youngest	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 youngest	det
10	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 entrust	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 what	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 what	cc
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 what	case
14	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 did	parataxis
15	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 intended	nsubj:pass
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 intended	aux:pass
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 intended	nsubj:pass
18	intended	intend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 what	acl:relcl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	do	past	which object	the elder brother		tree rules
2	entrust	infinitive	which object not said here		the youngest	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to young=Recipient
3	intend	past · passive		purpose		vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic

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

A knife, to indicate to the youngest whether the owner of it remained in good health and safe

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 knife	det
2	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 indicate	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 indicate	punct
4	to	to	PART	_	5 indicate	mark
5	indicate	indicate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 youngest	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 youngest	det
8	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 indicate	obl
9	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	14 remained	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 owner	det
11	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 remained	nsubj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 it	case
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 owner	nmod
14	remained	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 indicate	advcl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 health	case
16	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 health	amod
17	health	health	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 remained	obl
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 safe	cc
19	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 remained	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	to-infinitive	a knife					to the youngest	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to young=Experiencer
2	remain	past	the owner of knife			good health			vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in health=Location

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A knife, to indicate whether the owner remained well

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 knife	det
2	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 indicate	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 indicate	punct
4	to	to	PART	_	5 indicate	mark
5	indicate	indicate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	9 remained	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 owner	det
8	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 remained	nsubj
9	remained	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 indicate	ccomp
10	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	9 remained	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	to-infinitive	a knife						vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot clause=Topic
2	remain	past	the owner					well property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

A knife, to show if the owner was alive

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 knife	det
2	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 show	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 show	punct
4	to	to	PART	_	5 show	mark
5	show	show	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	if	if	SCONJ	_	10 alive	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 owner	det
8	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 alive	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 alive	cop
10	alive	alive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 show	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	to-infinitive	a knife						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is a condition, not said to happen	past	the owner					alive property	tree rules

Option 4

A knife, to tell whether the owner stayed well and safe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 knife	det
2	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tell	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 tell	punct
4	to	to	PART	_	5 tell	mark
5	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	9 stayed	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 owner	det
8	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 stayed	nsubj
9	stayed	stay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 tell	ccomp
10	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	9 stayed	advmod
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 safe	cc
12	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 stayed	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	to-infinitive	a knife						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	stay	past	the owner					well property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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/1503-pg503-part90/e4/