Exam question 4 · Lang's Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, part 1: a serpent w…

Which of the following best describes the outcome of the father's judgement upon the two elder sons?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, describe · To what, where: outcome

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1898 «Lang's Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, part 1: a serpent with a woman's head asks for help» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 describes	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 best	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 best	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 best	case
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 describes	nmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 outcome	det
8	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describes	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	13 judgement	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 father	det
11	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 judgement	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 father	case
13	judgement	judgement	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 outcome	nmod
14	upon	upon	ADP	_	18 sons	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sons	det
16	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	18 sons	nummod
17	elder	elder	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 sons	amod
18	sons	son	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 judgement	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the outcome of the father's judgement upon the two elder sons				of the best	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

He pardoned them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pardoned	nsubj
2	pardoned	pardon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pardoned	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pardon	past	He	them = they					vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 2

He forgave them in the end

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 forgave	nsubj
2	forgave	forgive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 forgave	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 end	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 end	det
6	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 forgave	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forgive	past	He	them = they			in the end		vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 3

They were exiled

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 exiled	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 exiled	aux:pass
3	exiled	exile	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exile	past · passive		They					vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He caused their execution

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 caused	nsubj
2	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 execution	nmod:poss
4	execution	execution	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 caused	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	past	He	their execution					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition execution=Patient
2	execute		their = they						nom execution «act transitive»: poss=agent

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/1898-pg7277-part35/e4/