Exam question 1 · Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans, part 50: Hans rings…

Which of the following best describes the outcome of the minister's offer of double wages?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: minister · What happens: follow, describe, offer · To what, where: outcome, double wages

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1799 «Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans, part 50: Hans rings the bells, outwits the headless dwarves, then rides off through snow» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 describes	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 best	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 best	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 best	case
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 describes	nmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 outcome	det
8	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describes	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	13 offer	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 minister	det
11	minister	minister	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 offer	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 minister	case
13	offer	offer	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 outcome	nmod
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 wages	case
15	double	double	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 wages	amod
16	wages	wage	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 offer	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the outcome of the minister's offer of double wages	of the best	tree rules
3	offer		the minister	double wages		nom offer «communication transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

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

Nobody reported to the minister

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 reported	nsubj
2	reported	report	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 minister	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 minister	det
5	minister	minister	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reported	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	report	past	Nobody					to the minister	vn subordinate-95.2.1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to minister=Co-Agent

Option 2

No person came forward to accept the offer, so the minister had to hire outsiders from the next town instead

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 came	nsubj
3	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	forward	forward	ADV	_	3 came	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	6 accept	mark
6	accept	accept	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 came	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 offer	det
8	offer	offer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 accept	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 had	punct
10	so	so	ADV	_	13 had	advmod
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 minister	det
12	minister	minister	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 had	nsubj
13	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 came	conj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 hire	mark
15	hire	hire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 had	xcomp
16	outsiders	outsider	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 hire	obj
17	from	from	ADP	_	20 town	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 town	det
19	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 town	amod
20	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 hire	obl
21	instead	instead	ADV	_	15 hire	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	come forward	past	no person			forward property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	accept	to-infinitive	no person not said here	the offer			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent offer=Theme
3	have	past	the minister				tree rules
4	hire	to-infinitive	the minister not said here	outsiders	the next town	instead property	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent outsider=Theme from town=Source

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

No person came forward at first, but three workers accepted it the following week and vanished too

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 came	nsubj
3	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	forward	forward	ADV	_	3 came	advmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 first	case
6	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	3 came	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 accepted	punct
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	11 accepted	cc
9	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 workers	nummod
10	workers	worker	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 accepted	nsubj
11	accepted	accept	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 came	conj
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 accepted	obj
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 week	det
14	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 week	amod
15	week	week	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 accepted	obl:unmarked
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 vanished	cc
17	vanished	vanish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 came	conj
18	too	too	ADV	_	17 vanished	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	come forward	past	no person			forward property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at first=Location
2	accept	past	three workers	person	week		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	vanish	past	no person not said here				vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

No person came forward to accept the offer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 came	nsubj
3	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	forward	forward	ADV	_	3 came	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	6 accept	mark
6	accept	accept	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 came	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 offer	det
8	offer	offer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 accept	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come forward	past	no person					forward property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	accept	to-infinitive	no person not said here	the offer					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent offer=Theme

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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