Exam question 3 · Arabian Nights, Sindbad the Sailor, part 26: Sindbad becom…

What is the nature of the burial custom described by the husband to Sindbad?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nature · What happens: be, describe · To what, where: burial custom

This is exam question 3 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	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 nature	det
4	nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 custom	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 custom	det
7	burial	burial	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 custom	compound
8	custom	custom	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 nature	nmod
9	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 custom	acl
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 husband	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 husband	det
12	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 described	obl
13	to	to	ADP	_	14 Sindbad	case
14	Sindbad	Sindbad	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 husband	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the nature of the burial custom						tree rules
2	describe	participle		the burial custom not said here				by the husband to Sindbad	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: 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 · ← Mova's choice

Burial of the dead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Burial	burial	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 dead	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 dead	det
4	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Burial	nmod

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

Option 2

A forced burial of the living with their dead partners

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 burial	det
2	forced	force	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 burial	amod
3	burial	burial	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 living	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 living	det
6	living	living	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 burial	nmod
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 partners	case
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 partners	nmod:poss
9	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 partners	amod
10	partners	partner	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 burial	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	force	participle							vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	bury			the living				with their dead partners	nom burial «event transitive»: of=patient with=obl

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A compulsory interment of the living with the dead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 interment	det
2	compulsory	compulsory	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 interment	amod
3	interment	interment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 living	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 living	det
6	living	living	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 interment	nmod
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 dead	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 dead	det
9	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 living	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	inter			the living with the dead					nom interment «event transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

A quick funeral

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 funeral	det
2	quick	quick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 funeral	amod
3	funeral	funeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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/186-pg128-part26/e3/