Exam question 2 · Norse Hero Tales, Sigurd the Dragonslayer, part 81: Sigurd…

By what means did Sigurd acquire knowledge of the speech of birds?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: Sigurd · What happens: mean, acquire, speak · To what, where: knowledge, birds · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1584 «Norse Hero Tales, Sigurd the Dragonslayer, part 81: Sigurd kills Fafnir, learns the birds' speech, and wakes Brynhild» 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	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 acquire	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 acquire	aux
5	Sigurd	Sigurd	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 acquire	nsubj
6	acquire	acquire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 acquire	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 speech	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 speech	det
10	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 knowledge	nmod
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 birds	case
12	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 speech	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 acquire	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	acquire	past · do-support	Sigurd	knowledge of the speech of birds	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knowledge=Theme
3	speak			birds	nom speech «communication transitive»: of=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

By reading runes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 reading	mark
2	reading	read	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	runes	rune	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 reading	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	gerund		runes					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rune=Topic

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

By tasting the heart of Fafnir

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 tasting	mark
2	tasting	taste	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 heart	det
4	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tasting	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 Fafnir	case
6	Fafnir	Fafnir	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 heart	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	taste	gerund		the heart of Fafnir					vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme heart=Attribute

Option 3

By drinking blood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 drinking	mark
2	drinking	drink	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drinking	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	gerund		blood					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blood=Patient

Option 4

By listening to the wind

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 listening	mark
2	listening	listen	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 wind	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 wind	det
5	wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 listening	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	listen	gerund						to the wind	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to wind=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/1584-pg540-part81/e2/