Exam question 4 · Arabian Nights, The Hunchback, part 33: the tailor confess…

What occasioned the Sultan's inquiry concerning the hunchback?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: inquiry, Sultan · What happens: occasion, concern, inquire · To what, where: inquiry, hunchback

This is exam question 4 of lesson 193 «Arabian Nights, The Hunchback, part 33: the tailor confesses, the Sultan summons everyone, and Alnaschar dreams of riches» 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 occasioned	nsubj
2	occasioned	occasion	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Sultan	det
4	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 inquiry	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Sultan	case
6	inquiry	inquiry	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occasioned	obj
7	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 inquiry	acl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 hunchback	det
9	hunchback	hunchback	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 concerning	obj
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 occasioned	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	occasion	past		the Sultan's inquiry	tree rules
2	concern	gerund	the Sultan's inquiry not said here	the hunchback	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus hunchback=Experiencer
3	inquire		the Sultan		nom inquiry «cognition transitive»: poss=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

The arrival of a foreign envoy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 arrival	det
2	arrival	arrival	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 envoy	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 envoy	det
5	foreign	foreign	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 envoy	amod
6	envoy	envoy	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 arrival	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arrive		a foreign envoy						nom arrival «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The absence of his jester

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 absence	det
2	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 jester	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 jester	nmod:poss
5	jester	jester	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absent			his jester					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The absence of his jester at the morning audience and the feast

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 absence	det
2	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 jester	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 jester	nmod:poss
5	jester	jester	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absence	nmod
6	at	at	ADP	_	9 audience	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 audience	det
8	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 audience	compound
9	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 jester	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 feast	cc
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 feast	det
12	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 audience	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absent			his jester at the morning audience and the feast					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The death of his vizir

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 death	det
2	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 vizir	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 vizir	nmod:poss
5	vizir	vizir	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 death	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die		his vizir						nom death «event intransitive»: of=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/193-pg128-part33/e4/