Exam question 4 · d'Aulnoy's Fairy Tales, The Blue Bird, part 5: the spy ove…

What kinship did the Enchanter invoke when petitioning the Fairy Mazilla?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: kinship · What happens: invoke, petition · To what, where: Fairy Mazilla

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1868 «d'Aulnoy's Fairy Tales, The Blue Bird, part 5: the spy overhears, the bird is cut, the King is saved» 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	6 invoke	obj
2	kinship	kinship	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 invoke	nsubj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 invoke	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Enchanter	det
5	Enchanter	Enchanter	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 invoke	nsubj
6	invoke	invoke	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 petitioning	advmod
8	petitioning	petition	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 invoke	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Mazilla	det
10	Fairy	Fairy	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 Mazilla	compound
11	Mazilla	Mazilla	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 petitioning	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 invoke	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invoke	past · do-support	kinship						tree rules
2	petition	gerund	kinship not said here	the Fairy Mazilla					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 · ← Mova's choice

They were friends

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 friends	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 friends	cop
3	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	They	friends					tree rules

Option 2

They were kin by marriage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 kin	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 kin	aux:pass
3	kin	kin	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 marriage	case
5	marriage	marriage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 kin	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kin	past · passive	marriage	They					tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

They were cousins of a sort

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 cousins	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 cousins	cop
3	cousins	cousin	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 sort	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 sort	det
6	sort	sort	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cousins	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	They	cousins				of a sort	tree rules

Option 4

They were cousins of a sort, since both had the same ancient magic

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 cousins	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 cousins	cop
3	cousins	cousin	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 sort	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 sort	det
6	sort	sort	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cousins	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 had	punct
8	since	since	SCONJ	_	10 had	mark
9	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	10 had	nsubj
10	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 cousins	conj
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 magic	det
12	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 magic	amod
13	ancient	ancient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 magic	amod
14	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	They	cousins				of a sort	tree rules
2	have	past	both	the same ancient magic					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent magic=Patient

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/1868-pg7277-part5/e4/