Exam question 3 · Russian Fairy Tales, Prince Ivan and the Brides from the O…

By what means did the Prince's mother-bird convey him to the other world?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mother bird · What happens: mean, convey · To what, where: him, other world

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1532 «Russian Fairy Tales, Prince Ivan and the Brides from the Other World: the brothers' trick and the Prince as a tailor's lad» 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	11 convey	advcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 convey	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Prince	det
6	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 bird	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Prince	case
8	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 bird	compound
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 bird	punct
10	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 convey	nsubj
11	convey	convey	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
12	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 convey	obj
13	to	to	ADP	_	16 world	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 world	det
15	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 world	amod
16	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 convey	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	11 convey	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
2	convey	past · do-support	the Prince's mother bird	him = he	the other world				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Topic to world=Recipient

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 a boat across a river

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 boat	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 boat	det
3	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	across	across	ADP	_	6 river	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 river	det
6	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 boat	nmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

By a large vessel borne upon her back

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	4 vessel	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 vessel	det
3	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 vessel	amod
4	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	borne	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 vessel	acl
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 back	case
7	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 back	nmod:poss
8	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 borne	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bear	participle		a large vessel not said here				upon her back	vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

By a ladder of birch wood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 ladder	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 ladder	det
3	ladder	ladder	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 wood	case
5	birch	birch	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wood	compound
6	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ladder	nmod

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

Option 4

By a chariot drawn by horses

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 chariot	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 chariot	det
3	chariot	chariot	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 chariot	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 horses	case
6	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 drawn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	participle		a chariot not said here				by horses	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/1532-pg540-part29/e3/