Exam question 4 · Indian Fairy Tales, Punchkin, the Broken Pot and the Magic…

Which supernatural agency does the wives petition in order to obstruct the sister's task?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: supernatural agency, sister · What happens: do, obstruct, task · To what, where: wives petition, task

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1824 «Indian Fairy Tales, Punchkin, the Broken Pot and the Magic Fiddle: the Prince wins his parrot, Punchkin dies, and a greedy Brahman and a jealous sister-in-law are introduced» 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 supernatural	det
2	supernatural	supernatural	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 agency	compound
3	agency	agency	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	nsubj
4	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 petition	det
6	wives	wife	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 petition	compound
7	petition	petition	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	obj
8	in	in	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	11 obstruct	mark
9	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 in	fixed
10	to	to	PART	_	11 obstruct	mark
11	obstruct	obstruct	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 petition	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sister	det
13	sister	sister	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 task	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 sister	case
15	task	task	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 obstruct	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	do	present	supernatural agency	the wives petition	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent petition=Eventuality
2	obstruct	to-infinitive	supernatural agency not said here	the sister's task	vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer task=Eventuality
3	task		the sister		nom task «act transitive»: poss=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

A demon who takes their food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 demon	det
2	demon	demon	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 takes	nsubj
4	takes	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 demon	acl:relcl
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 food	nmod:poss
6	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 takes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	present	a demon	their food					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Theme

Option 2

A priest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 priest	det
2	priest	priest	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

A goddess who grants their wishes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 goddess	det
2	goddess	goddess	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 grants	nsubj
4	grants	grant	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 goddess	acl:relcl
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 wishes	nmod:poss
6	wishes	wish	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 grants	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grant	present	a goddess	their wishes					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent wish=Theme
2	wish		their = they						nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A Bonga, to whom they make vows

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 Bonga	det
2	Bonga	Bonga	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 make	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 make	punct
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 whom	case
5	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 make	obj
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 make	nsubj
7	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	vows	vow	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 make	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	a Bonga	vows					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset whom=Beneficiary vow=Product

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/1824-pg7128-part8/e4/