Exam question 4 · Italian Popular Tales, Ciccu, part 63: the princess drops…

Why did the king decide to marry again, and whom did his counsellors recommend?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: king, counsellors · What happens: do, decide, marry, recommend

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1674 «Italian Popular Tales, Ciccu, part 63: the princess drops her veil and ring, and Ciccu must fetch the veil» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	2 did	advmod
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 did	advcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 king	det
4	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 decide	nsubj
5	decide	decide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	ccomp
6	to	to	PART	_	7 marry	mark
7	marry	marry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 decide	xcomp
8	again	again	ADV	_	7 marry	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 did	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 did	cc
11	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 did	nsubj
12	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 counsellors	nmod:poss
14	counsellors	counsellor	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 recommend	nsubj
15	recommend	recommend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 did	parataxis
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	roles by
1	do	past			tree rules
2	decide	present	the king		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	marry not said to happen	to-infinitive	the king not said here	again	vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
4	do	past			vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	recommend	present	king's counsellors		vn say-37.7-1-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

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 · ← Mova's choice

After the queen's death, when his counsellors urged him to marry the fairest woman in the entire land

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	After	after	ADP	_	5 death	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 queen	det
3	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 death	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 queen	case
5	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 urged	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 death	punct
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	10 urged	advmod
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 counsellors	nmod:poss
9	counsellors	counsellor	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 urged	nsubj
10	urged	urge	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 urged	iobj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 marry	mark
13	marry	marry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 urged	xcomp
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 woman	det
15	fairest	fair	ADJ	Degree=Sup	16 woman	amod
16	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 marry	obj
17	in	in	ADP	_	20 land	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 land	det
19	entire	entire	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 land	amod
20	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 marry	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	roles by
1	urge	past	his counsellors		him = he		after the queen's death	vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
2	marry not said to happen	to-infinitive	his counsellors not said here	the fairest woman		the entire land		vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Patient
3	die		the queen					nom death «event intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

After the queen's death, recommending the fairest woman in the world

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	After	after	ADP	_	5 death	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 queen	det
3	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 death	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 queen	case
5	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 recommending	punct
7	recommending	recommend	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 death	acl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 woman	det
9	fairest	fair	ADJ	Degree=Sup	10 woman	amod
10	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 recommending	obj
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 world	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 world	det
13	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 woman	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recommend	gerund	the queen's death not said here	the fairest woman		the world			vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Theme
2	die		the queen						nom death «event intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

Because he was lonely after the queen's death, and his counsellors recommended a lady from the next kingdom over the hills

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 lonely	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 lonely	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 lonely	cop
4	lonely	lonely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	after	after	ADP	_	9 death	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 queen	det
7	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 death	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 queen	case
9	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 lonely	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 recommended	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 recommended	cc
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 counsellors	nmod:poss
13	counsellors	counsellor	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 recommended	nsubj
14	recommended	recommend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 lonely	conj
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 lady	det
16	lady	lady	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 recommended	obj
17	from	from	ADP	_	20 kingdom	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 kingdom	det
19	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 kingdom	amod
20	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 recommended	obl
21	over	over	ADP	_	23 hills	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 hills	det
23	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 kingdom	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	he			after the queen's death	lonely property	tree rules
2	recommend	past	his counsellors	a lady	the next kingdom over the hills			vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lady=Theme
3	die		the queen					nom death «event intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Since the old queen was gone, they picked a rich widow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Since	since	SCONJ	_	6 gone	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 queen	det
3	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 queen	amod
4	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gone	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 gone	cop
6	gone	gone	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 picked	advcl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 gone	punct
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 picked	nsubj
9	picked	pick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 widow	det
11	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 widow	amod
12	widow	widow	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 picked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the old queen					gone property	tree rules
2	pick	past	they	a rich widow					vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent widow=Patient

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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