Exam question 2 · Arab Tales, The Gazelle, part 23: the gazelle wins the sul…

What reply did the sultan give regarding the proposed marriage?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sultan · What happens: be, do, give, regard, propose

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1772 «Arab Tales, The Gazelle, part 23: the gazelle wins the sultan's favour and dresses its master in fine clothes» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 did	obj
2	reply	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sultan	det
5	sultan	sultan	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj
6	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	regarding	regard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 marriage	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 marriage	det
9	proposed	propose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 marriage	amod
10	marriage	marriage	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	obl
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is a	present			tree rules
2	do	past			tree rules
3	give	present	the sultan	regard the proposed marriage	vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
4	regard	gerund			vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	propose	participle			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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

He declared himself angry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 declared	nsubj
2	declared	declare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 declared	obj
4	angry	angry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 declared	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	declare speech: other	past	He	himself = he				angry property	vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Attribute

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He declared himself content

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 declared	nsubj
2	declared	declare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 declared	obj
4	content	content	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 declared	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	declare speech: other	past	He	himself = he					vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent himself=Theme content=Attribute

Option 3

He declared himself furious and banished the poor man

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 declared	nsubj
2	declared	declare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 declared	obj
4	furious	furious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 declared	xcomp
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 banished	cc
6	banished	banish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 declared	conj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 man	det
8	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 man	amod
9	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 banished	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	declare speech: other	past	He	himself = he				furious property	vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Attribute
2	banish	past	He not said here	the poor man					vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He said he was pleased

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 said	nsubj
2	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 pleased	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 pleased	cop
5	pleased	pleased	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 said	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	he					pleased property	tree rules

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/1772-pg641-part23/e2/