Exam question 2 · Bassoto Tales, The Nyamatsane, part 1: a man kills a grand…

What is the effect of the baboon's action upon the bees in the cleft of the rock?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: baboon · What happens: be, act · To what, where: effect, cleft

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1668 «Bassoto Tales, The Nyamatsane, part 1: a man kills a grandmother nyamatsane, tricks her family, and flings a stone» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 effect	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 effect	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 effect	det
4	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	9 action	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 baboon	det
7	baboon	baboon	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 action	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 baboon	case
9	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 effect	nmod
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 bees	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 bees	det
12	bees	bee	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 action	nmod
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 cleft	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 cleft	det
15	cleft	cleft	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 effect	nmod
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 rock	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 rock	det
18	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 cleft	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 effect	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		the effect		the cleft of the rock		of the baboon's action upon the bees	tree rules
2	act		the baboon					upon the bees	nom action «act intransitive»: poss=agent upon=obl

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

they chase the baboon away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 chase	nsubj
2	chase	chase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 baboon	det
4	baboon	baboon	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 chase	obj
5	away	away	ADV	_	2 chase	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chase away	present	they	the baboon				away property	vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baboon=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

they swarm against the panther and sting her hard

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 swarm	nsubj
2	swarm	swarm	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	against	against	ADP	_	5 panther	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 panther	det
5	panther	panther	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swarm	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 sting	cc
7	sting	sting	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 swarm	conj
8	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 sting	obj
9	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	7 sting	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swarm	present	they			the panther			vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against panther=Location
2	sting	infinitive	they not said here	her = she				hard property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer

Option 3

they hide in the rock again

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 hide	nsubj
2	hide	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 rock	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rock	det
5	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hide	obl
6	again	again	ADV	_	2 hide	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	present	they			the rock	again		vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in rock=Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

they swarm against the panther

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 swarm	nsubj
2	swarm	swarm	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	against	against	ADP	_	5 panther	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 panther	det
5	panther	panther	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swarm	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swarm	present	they			the panther			vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against panther=Location

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/1668-pg5615-part57/e2/