Exam question 1 · Swahili Tales, The Nunda: the sultan's cat devours his peo…

What is the principal reason the sultan gives for refusing to destroy the cat, as recorded in the passage?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sultan · What happens: be, give, refuse, not destroy, record · To what, where: principal reason, cat, passage

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1795 «Swahili Tales, The Nunda: the sultan's cat devours his people, and his youngest son sets out to slay it» 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	5 reason	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reason	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 reason	amod
5	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 sultan	det
7	sultan	sultan	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 gives	nsubj
8	gives	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	acl:relcl
9	for	for	SCONJ	_	10 refusing	mark
10	refusing	refuse	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 gives	advcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 destroy	mark
12	destroy	destroy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 refusing	xcomp
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 cat	det
14	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 destroy	obj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 recorded	punct
16	as	as	SCONJ	_	17 recorded	mark
17	recorded	record	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 gives	conj
18	in	in	ADP	_	20 passage	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 passage	det
20	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 recorded	obl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is a	present		the principal reason		tree rules
2	give	present	the sultan	the principal reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	refuse	gerund	the sultan not said here			vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	not destroy	to-infinitive	the sultan not said here	the cat		vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Patient
5	record	participle	the sultan not said here		the passage	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in passage=Destination

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

He says the cat is his

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 says	nsubj
2	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cat	det
4	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 says	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 his	cop
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 cat	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	the cat not said here	cat					tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He asserts that the cat, and all it has taken, belong to him

The tree, 13 words

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 asserts	nsubj
2	asserts	assert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	ADP	_	5 cat	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 asserts	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 belong	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 belong	cc
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	13 belong	advmod
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 taken	nsubj:pass
10	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 taken	aux
11	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 all	acl:relcl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 all	punct
13	belong	belong	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres Typo=Yes VerbForm=Fin	2 asserts	conj
14	to	to	ADP	_	15 him	case
15	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 belong	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	assert	present	He			that the cat	vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	take	present · perfect · passive		it			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
3	belong	present	He not said here		cat		vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme

Option 3

He argues the cat must be spared since it is his own beast

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 argues	nsubj
2	argues	argue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cat	det
4	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 spared	nsubj:pass
5	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 spared	aux
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 spared	aux:pass
7	spared	spare	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 argues	ccomp
8	since	since	SCONJ	_	13 beast	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 beast	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 beast	cop
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 beast	nmod:poss
12	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 beast	amod
13	beast	beast	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 spared	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	argue speech: disagree	present	He		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	spare	must · passive		the cat	vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: subject=Asset
3	is a	present	cat	his own beast	tree rules

Option 4

Because it is his cat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	5 cat	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 cat	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 cat	cop
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 cat	nmod:poss
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	it	his cat					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.

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