Exam question 3 · Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans, part 50: Hans rings…

Which phrase identifies the meaning of "dumb" as used in the passage?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: phrase · What happens: identify, use · To what, where: meaning, passage

This is exam question 3 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identifies	nsubj
3	identifies	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 meaning	det
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identifies	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 dumb	case
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 dumb	punct
8	dumb	dumb	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 meaning	nmod
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 dumb	punct
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 used	mark
11	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 identifies	advcl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 passage	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 passage	det
14	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 used	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 identifies	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	present	which phrase	the meaning of dumb					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	use	participle	which phrase not said here			the passage			vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: 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 · ✓ the right answer

Silent, without the power of speech

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 power	amod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 power	punct
3	without	without	ADP	_	5 power	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 power	det
5	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 speech	case
7	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 power	nmod

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

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Unable to speak clearly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	to	to	PART	_	3 speak	mark
3	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Unable	xcomp
4	clearly	clearly	ADV	_	3 speak	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	to-infinitive						clearly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Silent, without the power of speech, and unable to answer when spoken to by anyone

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 power	amod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 power	punct
3	without	without	ADP	_	5 power	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 power	det
5	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 speech	case
7	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 power	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 unable	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 unable	cc
10	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 power	conj
11	to	to	PART	_	12 answer	mark
12	answer	answer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 unable	xcomp
13	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	14 spoken	advmod
14	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 answer	acl
15	to	to	ADP	_	14 spoken	obl
16	by	by	ADP	_	17 anyone	case
17	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	12 answer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	answer speech: assert	to-infinitive						by anyone	vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	speak speech: other	participle							vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Foolish and slow of wit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Foolish	foolish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 slow	cc
3	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Foolish	conj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 wit	case
5	wit	wit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 slow	obl

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

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/1799-pg641-part50/e3/