Exam question 1 · Household Tales, The Youth and the Witch-maiden, part 4: t…

Which faculty enabled the youth to comprehend the avian discourse overheard in the forest?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: faculty · What happens: enable, comprehend, overhear · To what, where: youth, avian discourse, forest

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1680 «Household Tales, The Youth and the Witch-maiden, part 4: the birds lead him to the moonlit spring» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 faculty	det
2	faculty	faculty	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 enabled	nsubj
3	enabled	enable	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 youth	det
5	youth	youth	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 enabled	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 comprehend	mark
7	comprehend	comprehend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 enabled	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 discourse	det
9	avian	avian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 discourse	amod
10	discourse	discourse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 comprehend	obj
11	overheard	overhear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 discourse	acl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 forest	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 forest	det
14	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 overheard	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 enabled	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	enable	past	which faculty	the youth		tree rules
2	comprehend	to-infinitive	which faculty not said here	the avian discourse		vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer discourse=Stimulus
3	overhear	participle		the avian discourse not said here	the forest	vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer

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 · ✓ the right answer

His understanding of the language of birds.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 understanding	nmod:poss
2	understanding	understanding	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 language	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 language	det
5	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 understanding	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 birds	case
7	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 language	nmod
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 understanding	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand		His = he	the language of birds					nom understanding «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

His knowledge of the old forest paths.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 knowledge	nmod:poss
2	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 paths	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 paths	det
5	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 paths	amod
6	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 paths	compound
7	paths	path	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 knowledge	nmod
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 knowledge	punct

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

Option 3

His sharp understanding of the language of birds, which he had learned from his old teacher.

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 understanding	nmod:poss
2	sharp	sharp	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 understanding	amod
3	understanding	understanding	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 language	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 language	det
6	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 understanding	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 birds	case
8	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 language	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 learned	punct
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 learned	obj
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 learned	nsubj
12	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 learned	aux
13	learned	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 birds	acl:relcl
14	from	from	ADP	_	17 teacher	case
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 teacher	nmod:poss
16	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 teacher	amod
17	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 learned	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 understanding	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	past · perfect	he	birds				from his old teacher	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent which=Topic from teacher=Source
2	understand		His = he	the language of birds					nom understanding «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 4

His natural understanding and quiet knowledge of the language that all birds speak.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 understanding	nmod:poss
2	natural	natural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 understanding	amod
3	understanding	understanding	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 knowledge	cc
5	quiet	quiet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 knowledge	amod
6	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 understanding	conj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 language	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 language	det
9	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 knowledge	nmod
10	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 speak	obj
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	12 birds	det
12	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 speak	nsubj
13	speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 language	acl:relcl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 understanding	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	present	all birds	the language					tree rules
2	understand		His = he						nom understanding «cognition transitive»: poss=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/1680-pg640-part4/e1/