Exam question 2 · Fairy Book, The Two Brothers, part 38: a false slave steal…

By what means did the witch threaten to reduce the young man to a state of stone?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do, threaten, reduce · To what, where: witch, young man, state · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1649 «Fairy Book, The Two Brothers, part 38: a false slave steals the credit, then a brother rescues the other from a witch» 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 witch	det
6	witch	witch	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	threaten	threaten	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 did	xcomp
8	to	to	PART	_	9 reduce	mark
9	reduce	reduce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 threaten	xcomp
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 man	det
11	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 man	amod
12	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reduce	obj
13	to	to	ADP	_	15 state	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 state	det
15	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reduce	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 stone	case
17	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 state	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past	the witch		tree rules
3	threaten	infinitive			tree rules
4	reduce not said to happen	to-infinitive	the young man	to a state of stone goal	vn limit-76 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer man=Patient to state=Goal

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 potion poured from her silver flask

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pour	participle		a potion not said here		her silver flask			vn substance_emission-43.4-1 «NP.theme V PP.source»: agent=Theme from flask=Source

Option 2

By a single hair plucked from her head and cast upon him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	4 hair	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 hair	det
3	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 hair	amod
4	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 cast	nsubj
5	plucked	pluck	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 hair	acl
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 head	case
7	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 head	nmod:poss
8	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 plucked	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 plucked	cc
10	cast	cast	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 him	case
12	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 cast	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pluck	participle		a single hair not said here		hair's head			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from head=Source
2	cast	past	a single hair					upon him = he	vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent upon he=Destination

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By a single hair plucked from her head

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pluck	participle		a single hair not said here		her head			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from head=Source

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

By a single hair plucked from her head, after she had cursed him three times in the dark

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	4 hair	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 hair	det
3	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 hair	amod
4	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	plucked	pluck	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 hair	acl
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 head	case
7	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 head	nmod:poss
8	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 plucked	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 cursed	punct
10	after	after	SCONJ	_	13 cursed	mark
11	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 cursed	nsubj:pass
12	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 cursed	aux
13	cursed	curse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 hair	conj
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 cursed	obj
15	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	16 times	nummod
16	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 cursed	obl:unmarked
17	in	in	ADP	_	19 dark	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 dark	det
19	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 cursed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pluck	participle		a single hair not said here		her head			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from head=Source
2	curse	past · perfect · passive		she		the dark	time		tree rules

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.

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