Exam question 4 · Arabian Nights, The Little Hunchback, part 31: Sindbad end…

Which of the following was the doctor's wife's proposal for disposing of the corpse?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: proposal · What happens: follow, be, dispose

This is exam question 4 of lesson 191 «Arabian Nights, The Little Hunchback, part 31: Sindbad ends his last voyage, and a hunchback dies at supper» 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	11 proposal	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	11 proposal	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 proposal	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 proposal	case
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 proposal	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 doctor	det
7	doctor	doctor	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 wife	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 doctor	case
9	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 proposal	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 wife	case
11	proposal	proposal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
12	for	for	SCONJ	_	13 disposing	mark
13	disposing	dispose	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 proposal	acl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 corpse	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 corpse	det
16	corpse	corpse	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 disposing	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	11 proposal	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	past		of the doctor's wife's proposal	tree rules
3	dispose	gerund	the doctor's wife's proposal not said here	of the corpse	vn addict-96 «NP V NP PP.Theme»: 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

burning it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 burning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	gerund		it					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 2

carrying it to the cellar stairs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	carrying	carry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 carrying	obj
3	to	to	ADP	_	6 stairs	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 stairs	det
5	cellar	cellar	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stairs	compound
6	stairs	stair	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 carrying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	gerund		it		the cellar stairs			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to stair=Destination

Option 3

dropping it in the river at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	dropping	drop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 dropping	obj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 river	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 river	det
5	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 dropping	obl
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 night	case
7	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 dropping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	gerund		it		the river	night		vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme in river=Destination

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

lowering it down the neighbour's chimney

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	lowering	lower	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 lowering	obj
3	down	down	ADP	_	1 lowering	compound:prt
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 neighbour	det
5	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 chimney	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 neighbour	case
7	chimney	chimney	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 lowering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lower down	gerund		it				the neighbour's chimney obl	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

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/191-pg128-part31/e4/