Exam question 4 · Arabian Nights, Sindbad the Sailor, part 29: Sindbad float…

What did the Caliph enquire of Sindbad concerning the Prince of Serendib?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Caliph enquire · What happens: do, concern · To what, where: Caliph enquire, Prince

This is exam question 4 of lesson 189 «Arabian Nights, Sindbad the Sailor, part 29: Sindbad floats out of a dark underground river and is welcomed in Serendib» 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	2 did	nsubj
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 enquire	det
4	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 enquire	compound
5	enquire	enquire	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 did	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 Sindbad	case
7	Sindbad	Sindbad	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 enquire	nmod
8	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 enquire	acl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Prince	det
10	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 concerning	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 Serendib	case
12	Serendib	Serendib	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Prince	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		the Caliph enquire of Sindbad					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent enquire=Eventuality
2	concern	gerund	the Caliph enquire of Sindbad not said here	the Prince of Serendib					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus prince=Experiencer

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

Whether he was as rich and powerful as claimed, and whether his army was large

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whether	whether	SCONJ	_	5 rich	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 rich	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 rich	cop
4	as	as	ADP	_	5 rich	case
5	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 powerful	cc
7	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 rich	conj
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 claimed	mark
9	claimed	claim	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 powerful	advcl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 large	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 large	cc
12	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	16 large	mark
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 army	nmod:poss
14	army	army	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 large	nsubj
15	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 large	cop
16	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 rich	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	past	he	rich property	tree rules
2	be		he not said here		tree rules
3	claim speech: other	participle	he not said here		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	is	past	his army	large property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Whether he was as rich and powerful as claimed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whether	whether	SCONJ	_	5 rich	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 rich	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 rich	cop
4	as	as	ADP	_	5 rich	case
5	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 powerful	cc
7	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 rich	conj
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 claimed	mark
9	claimed	claim	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 rich	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	past	he	rich property	tree rules
2	be		he not said here		tree rules
3	claim speech: other	participle	he not said here		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Whether he was as famous as the rumours said

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whether	whether	SCONJ	_	5 famous	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 famous	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 famous	cop
4	as	as	ADV	_	5 famous	advmod
5	famous	famous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 said	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rumours	det
8	rumours	rumour	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 said	nsubj
9	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 famous	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	he					famous property	tree rules
2	say speech: assert	past	the rumours						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Whether he was as rich as rumoured

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whether	whether	SCONJ	_	5 rich	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 rich	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 rich	cop
4	as	as	ADV	_	5 rich	advmod
5	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	7 rumoured	mark
7	rumoured	rumour	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 rich	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	he					rich property	tree rules
2	rumour	participle	he not said here						tree rules

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.

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