Exam question 2 · Russian Folk-Tales, Marya Morevna, part 11: Ivan finds his…

By what means did Koshchei the Deathless dispatch Prince Ivan?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do · To what, where: Koshchei · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1514 «Russian Folk-Tales, Marya Morevna, part 11: Ivan finds his wife, is chopped up and brought back to life» 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	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	Koshchei	Koshchei	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 dispatch	det
7	Deathless	deathless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 dispatch	amod
8	dispatch	dispatch	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
9	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Ivan	compound
10	Ivan	Ivan	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 dispatch	appos
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past		Koshchei					tree rules

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 sealing him in a barrel and chopping it apart with an axe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 sealing	mark
2	sealing	seal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sealing	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 barrel	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 barrel	det
6	barrel	barrel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sealing	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 chopping	cc
8	chopping	chop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 sealing	conj
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 chopping	obj
10	apart	apart	ADV	_	8 chopping	advmod
11	with	with	ADP	_	13 axe	case
12	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 axe	det
13	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 chopping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seal	gerund		him = he		a barrel			vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient
2	chop	gerund		barrel				with a axe; apart property	vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with axe=Instrument

Option 2

by drowning him in the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 drowning	mark
2	drowning	drown	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 drowning	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 sea	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sea	det
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drowning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drown	gerund		him = he		the sea			vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

by chopping him into small pieces

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 chopping	mark
2	chopping	chop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 chopping	obj
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 pieces	case
5	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 pieces	amod
6	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 chopping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chop	gerund		him = he				into small pieces result	vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent he=Patient into piece=Result

Option 4

by chopping him into small pieces and burning them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 chopping	mark
2	chopping	chop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 chopping	obj
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 pieces	case
5	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 pieces	amod
6	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 chopping	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 burning	cc
8	burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 chopping	conj
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 burning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chop	gerund		him = he				into small pieces result	vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent he=Patient into piece=Result
2	burn	gerund		pieces = piece					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent they=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/1514-pg540-part11/e2/