Exam question 3 · Yellow Fairy Book, The Pig King, part 26: the Princess str…

In what manner did the Princess progress across the precipice that she could not leap?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: she · What happens: do, not leap · To what, where: Princess progress, manner, precipice

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1529 «Yellow Fairy Book, The Pig King, part 26: the Princess struggles across deserts and mountains to the Sun's palace» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 progress	det
6	Princess	Princess	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 progress	compound
7	progress	progress	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	across	across	ADP	_	10 precipice	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 precipice	det
10	precipice	precipice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
11	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 leap	mark
12	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 leap	nsubj
13	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 leap	aux
14	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	15 leap	advmod
15	leap	leap	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 precipice	acl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		the Princess progress		what manner		across the precipice	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent progress=Eventuality
2	not leap	could	she	the precipice not said here					vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme precipice=Trajectory

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

by sliding down on her back, using her staff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 sliding	mark
2	sliding	slide	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 using	advcl
3	down	down	ADV	_	2 sliding	advmod
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 back	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 back	nmod:poss
6	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sliding	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 sliding	punct
8	using	use	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	root	root
9	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 staff	nmod:poss
10	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 using	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	slide down	gerund				her back		down property	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on back=Trajectory
2	use	gerund		her staff					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent staff=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

by crawling on hands and knees, aided by her staff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 crawling	mark
2	crawling	crawl	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 aided	advcl
3	on	on	ADP	_	4 hands	case
4	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 crawling	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 knees	cc
6	knees	knee	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 hands	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 crawling	punct
8	aided	aid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 staff	case
10	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 staff	nmod:poss
11	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 aided	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crawl	gerund				hands and knees			vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on hand=Trajectory
2	aid	participle						by her staff	vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 3

by crawling on her hands and knees all the way round the edge, helped along by her steel staff

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 crawling	mark
2	crawling	crawl	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 way	csubj
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 hands	case
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 hands	nmod:poss
5	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 crawling	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 knees	cc
7	knees	knee	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hands	conj
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 way	det:predet
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 way	det
10	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
11	round	round	ADP	_	13 edge	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 edge	det
13	edge	edge	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 way	nmod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 helped	punct
15	helped	help	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 way	acl
16	along	along	ADV	_	15 helped	advmod
17	by	by	ADP	_	20 staff	case
18	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 staff	nmod:poss
19	steel	steel	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 staff	compound
20	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 helped	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crawl	gerund				her hands and knees			vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on hand=Trajectory
2	help along	participle		all way round the edge not said here				along property	vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 4

by creeping forward on hands and feet with her staff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 creeping	mark
2	creeping	creep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	forward	forward	ADV	_	2 creeping	advmod
4	on	on	ADP	_	5 hands	case
5	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 creeping	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 feet	cc
7	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hands	conj
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 staff	case
9	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 staff	nmod:poss
10	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 creeping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	creep	gerund				hands and feet		with her staff; forward property	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on hand=Trajectory

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/1529-pg540-part26/e3/