Exam question 2 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, Blockhead-Hans: he wins the Prince…

By what means did the youngest son ultimately secure the hand of the Princess?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · What happens: mean, secure · To what, where: hand

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1748 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, Blockhead-Hans: he wins the Princess with a crow, a shoe and mud» 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=Rel	9 secure	obl
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=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 secure	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 son	det
6	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 son	amod
7	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	ultimately	ultimately	ADV	_	9 secure	advmod
9	secure	secure	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 hand	det
11	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secure	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 Princess	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Princess	det
14	Princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 hand	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 secure	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	secure	past · do-support		the hand of the Princess				ultimately property	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition hand=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

by throwing mud at her father in front of the whole hall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 throwing	mark
2	throwing	throw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 throwing	obj
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 father	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 father	nmod:poss
6	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 throwing	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 front	case
8	front	front	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 throwing	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	12 hall	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 hall	det
11	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 hall	amod
12	hall	hall	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 front	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	throw	gerund		mud		front of the whole hall		at her father	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent mud=Theme at father=Destination

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

by answering her remarks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 answering	mark
2	answering	answer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 remarks	nmod:poss
4	remarks	remark	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 answering	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	answer speech: assert	gerund		her remarks					vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent remark=Eventuality
2	remark		her = she						nom remark «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

by bringing her a gift

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 bringing	mark
2	bringing	bring	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 bringing	obj
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 gift	det
5	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bringing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bring	gerund		a gift	her = she				vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent she=Destination gift=Theme

Option 4

by answering her remarks with wit and a bold speech at court

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 answering	mark
2	answering	answer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 remarks	nmod:poss
4	remarks	remark	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 answering	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 wit	case
6	wit	wit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 answering	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 speech	cc
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 speech	det
9	bold	bold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 speech	amod
10	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wit	conj
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 court	case
12	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 speech	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	answer speech: assert	gerund		her remarks				with wit and a bold speech at court	vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent remark=Eventuality
2	remark		her = she						nom remark «communication 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/1748-pg640-part72/e2/