Exam question 3 · Slavonic Tales, The Magic Ring, part 1: Martin spends his…

By what means did the Prince overcome the magician?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Prince · What happens: mean, overcome · To what, where: magician

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1717 «Slavonic Tales, The Magic Ring, part 1: Martin spends his mother's money on a dog and a cat» 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	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 overcome	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Prince	det
6	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 overcome	nsubj
7	overcome	overcome	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 magician	det
9	magician	magician	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 overcome	obj
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 what	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	overcome	past · do-support	the Prince	the magician					vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot magician=Theme

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

With a sword

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	3 sword	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 sword	det
3	sword	sword	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

By seizing him by the beard and casting him down

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 seizing	mark
2	seizing	seize	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 seizing	obj
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 beard	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 beard	det
6	beard	beard	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 seizing	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 casting	cc
8	casting	cast	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 seizing	conj
9	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 casting	obj
10	down	down	ADP	_	8 casting	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seize	gerund		him = he				by the beard	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
2	cast down	gerund		him = he					vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Product

Option 3

By bribing him with a golden ring

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 bribing	mark
2	bribing	bribe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 bribing	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 ring	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 ring	det
6	golden	golden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 ring	amod
7	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bribing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bribe	gerund		him = he				with a golden ring	vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 4

By tripping him up and then pinning him to the ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 tripping	mark
2	tripping	trip	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 tripping	obj
4	up	up	ADP	_	2 tripping	compound:prt
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 pinning	cc
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 pinning	advmod
7	pinning	pin	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 tripping	conj
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 pinning	obj
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 ground	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 ground	det
11	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 pinning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	trip up	gerund		him = he					vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Agent
2	pin	gerund		him = he			then	to the ground	vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent he=Patient to ground=Co-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/1717-pg640-part41/e3/