Exam question 4 · Russian Folk-Tales, King Frost: the stepmother's daughter…

Upon whose instruction did the old man set out to fetch the stepmother's daughter?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: do, set out, fetch · To what, where: old man, daughter

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1725 «Russian Folk-Tales, King Frost: the stepmother's daughter is frozen while the girl is saved» 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	Upon	upon	ADP	_	3 instruction	case
2	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	3 instruction	nmod:poss
3	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 man	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 man	amod
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	set	set	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 man	acl
9	out	out	ADP	_	8 set	compound:prt
10	to	to	PART	_	11 fetch	mark
11	fetch	fetch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 set	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 stepmother	det
13	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 daughter	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 stepmother	case
15	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 fetch	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past	the old man	upon instruction	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Eventuality
2	set out	participle	the old man not said here		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	fetch	to-infinitive	the stepmother's daughter		vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=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

At the request of the neighbour's son

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	At	at	ADP	_	3 request	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 request	det
3	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	8 son	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 neighbour	det
6	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 son	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 neighbour	case
8	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 request	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	request			the neighbour's son					nom request «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Upon the stern instruction of the village elders and his wife, the stepmother, at dawn

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Upon	upon	ADP	_	4 instruction	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 instruction	det
3	stern	stern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 instruction	amod
4	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 elders	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 elders	det
7	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 elders	compound
8	elders	elder	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 instruction	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 wife	cc
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 wife	nmod:poss
11	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 elders	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 stepmother	punct
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 stepmother	det
14	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 instruction	conj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 dawn	punct
16	at	at	ADP	_	17 dawn	case
17	dawn	dawn	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 instruction	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	instruct			the village elders and his wife					nom instruction «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

On the advice of the village priest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	On	on	ADP	_	3 advice	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 advice	det
3	advice	advice	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 priest	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 priest	det
6	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 priest	compound
7	priest	priest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 advice	nmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Upon the instruction of his wife, the stepmother

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Upon	upon	ADP	_	3 instruction	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 instruction	det
3	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 wife	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 wife	nmod:poss
6	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 instruction	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 stepmother	punct
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 stepmother	det
9	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 instruction	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	instruct			his wife					nom instruction «communication transitive»: of=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/1725-pg640-part49/e4/