Exam question 1 · Arabian Nights, Sindbad the Sailor, part 26: Sindbad becom…

What is the principal reason the king bestows a wife upon Sindbad?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: king · What happens: be, bestow · To what, where: principal reason, wife

This is exam question 1 of lesson 186 «Arabian Nights, Sindbad the Sailor, part 26: Sindbad becomes rich on a strange island, then is buried alive with his dead wife and survives by killing newcomers.» 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 king	det
7	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bestows	nsubj
8	bestows	bestow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	acl:relcl
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 wife	det
10	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bestows	obj
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 Sindbad	case
12	Sindbad	Sindbad	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 wife	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		the principal reason					tree rules
2	bestow	present	the king	a wife				upon Sindbad	tree rules

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

To honour his long voyage at sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 honour	mark
2	honour	honour	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 voyage	nmod:poss
4	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 voyage	amod
5	voyage	voyage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 honour	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 sea	case
7	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 honour	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	honour	to-infinitive		his long voyage		sea			tree rules
2	voyage		his = he						nom voyage «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To secure his permanent residence among the islanders

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 secure	mark
2	secure	secure	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 residence	nmod:poss
4	permanent	permanent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 residence	amod
5	residence	residence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 secure	obj
6	among	among	ADP	_	8 islanders	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 islanders	det
8	islanders	islander	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 secure	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	secure	to-infinitive		his permanent residence				among the islanders	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition residence=Theme

Option 3

To please Sindbad

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 please	mark
2	please	please	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Sindbad	Sindbad	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 please	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	please	to-infinitive		Sindbad					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sindbad=Experiencer

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

To keep him on the island forever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 keep	mark
2	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 keep	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 island	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 island	det
6	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 keep	obl
7	forever	forever	ADV	_	2 keep	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	to-infinitive		him = he		the island		forever property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme on island=Location

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/186-pg128-part26/e1/