Exam question 4 · Fairy Book, The Nixy of the Mill-Pond, part 1: a poor mill…

Explain why the miller, upon learning the nature of his bargain, could find no remedy beyond keeping his child from the pond.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, his · What happens: explain, learn, find, keep, bargain · To what, where: miller, nature, remedy, child, pond

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1702 «Fairy Book, The Nixy of the Mill-Pond, part 1: a poor miller strikes a bargain with a water spirit» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	1 Explain	advmod
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 miller	det
4	miller	miller	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Explain	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 learning	punct
6	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	7 learning	mark
7	learning	learn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Explain	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 nature	det
9	nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 learning	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 bargain	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 bargain	nmod:poss
12	bargain	bargain	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 nature	nmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 find	punct
14	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 find	aux
15	find	find	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	1 Explain	conj
16	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	17 remedy	det
17	remedy	remedy	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 find	obj
18	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	19 keeping	mark
19	keeping	keep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 find	advcl
20	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 child	nmod:poss
21	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 keeping	obj
22	from	from	ADP	_	24 pond	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 pond	det
24	pond	pond	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 keeping	obl
25	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here	the miller			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent miller=Topic
2	learn	gerund	you not said here	the nature of his bargain			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nature=Topic
3	find	could	you not said here	no remedy			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent remedy=Topic
4	keep	gerund	you not said here		his child	the pond	vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer child=Beneficiary from pond=Eventuality
5	bargain		his = he				nom bargain «communication intransitive»: poss=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

because the nixy had already claimed the child and no one in the village had any power to undo the bargain

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 claimed	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 nixy	det
3	nixy	nixy	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 claimed	nsubj:pass
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 claimed	aux
5	already	already	ADV	_	6 claimed	advmod
6	claimed	claim	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 had	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 child	det
8	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 had	nsubj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 one	cc
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 one	det
11	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 child	conj
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 village	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 village	det
14	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 one	nmod
15	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
16	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	17 power	det
17	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 had	obj
18	to	to	PART	_	19 undo	mark
19	undo	undo	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 had	xcomp
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 bargain	det
21	bargain	bargain	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 undo	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	claim speech: other	past · perfect · passive		the nixy	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic
2	have	past	the child and no one in the village	any power	tree rules
3	undo	to-infinitive	any power not said here	the bargain	vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bargain=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

because the nixy had cursed the whole house

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	because	because	SCONJ	_	5 cursed	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 nixy	det
3	nixy	nixy	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cursed	nsubj:pass
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cursed	aux
5	cursed	curse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 house	det
7	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 house	amod
8	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cursed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	curse	past · perfect · passive		the nixy					tree rules

Option 3

no one knew why

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 one	det
2	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 knew	nsubj
3	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	3 knew	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	past	no one						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

because no one could devise any other advice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	because	because	SCONJ	_	5 devise	mark
2	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 one	det
3	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 devise	nsubj
4	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 devise	aux
5	devise	devise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 advice	det
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 advice	amod
8	advice	advice	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 devise	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	devise	could	no one	any other advice					vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent advice=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1702-pg640-part26/e4/