Exam question 4 · Russian Fairy Tales, The Golden Mermaid: the Prince catche…

Which faithful companion of the Prince declined to remain with him after their final parting?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: faithful companion, their · What happens: companion, decline, not remain, part

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1935 «Russian Fairy Tales, The Golden Mermaid: the Prince catches the mermaid, but his jealous brothers kill him and the wolf brings him back to life» 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	3 companion	nsubj
2	faithful	faithful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 companion	amod
3	companion	companion	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 declined	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 Prince	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Prince	det
6	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 companion	nmod
7	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	9 remain	mark
9	remain	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 declined	xcomp
10	with	with	ADP	_	11 him	case
11	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 remain	obl
12	after	after	ADP	_	15 parting	case
13	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 parting	nmod:poss
14	final	final	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 parting	amod
15	parting	parting	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 remain	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 declined	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	companion				of the Prince	tree rules
2	decline	past	faithful companion			vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not remain	to-infinitive	faithful companion not said here	after their final parting	with companion	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	part		their = they			nom parting «act intransitive»: 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 wolf, who had been the Prince's faithful friend since the prison road and who disappeared into the thicket after the feast

The tree, 23 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wolf	det
2	wolf	wolf	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 disappeared	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 friend	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 friend	nsubj
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 friend	aux
6	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	11 friend	cop
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Prince	det
8	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 friend	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Prince	case
10	faithful	faithful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 friend	amod
11	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wolf	conj
12	since	since	ADP	_	15 road	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 road	det
14	prison	prison	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 road	compound
15	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 friend	nmod
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 disappeared	cc
17	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 disappeared	nsubj
18	disappeared	disappear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
19	into	into	ADP	_	21 thicket	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 thicket	det
21	thicket	thicket	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 disappeared	obl
22	after	after	ADP	_	24 feast	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 feast	det
24	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 disappeared	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past · perfect	the wolf and the Prince's faithful friend	the Prince's faithful friend			since the prison road		tree rules
2	disappear	past	the wolf and the Prince's faithful friend			the thicket	after the feast		vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The wolf, who ran off into the woods

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wolf	det
2	wolf	wolf	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ran	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 ran	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 ran	nsubj
5	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	off	off	ADP	_	5 ran	compound:prt
7	into	into	ADP	_	9 woods	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 woods	det
9	woods	wood	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 ran	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run off	past	the wolf					into the woods result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into wood=Result

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The wolf, who vanished into the thicket

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wolf	det
2	wolf	wolf	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 vanished	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 vanished	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 vanished	nsubj
5	vanished	vanish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	into	into	ADP	_	8 thicket	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 thicket	det
8	thicket	thicket	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 vanished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	vanish	past	the wolf			the thicket			vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The mermaid, who had come on board to look at the silks, and then left the Prince on the shore to weep alone

The tree, 23 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 mermaid	det
2	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 left	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 come	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 come	nsubj
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 come	aux
6	come	come	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	2 mermaid	acl:relcl
7	on	on	ADP	_	8 board	case
8	board	board	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 come	obl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 look	mark
10	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 come	advcl
11	at	at	ADP	_	13 silks	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 silks	det
13	silks	silk	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 look	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 left	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 left	cc
16	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	17 left	advmod
17	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 Prince	det
19	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 left	obj
20	on	on	ADP	_	22 shore	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 shore	det
22	shore	shore	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 left	obl
23	to	to	PART	_	24 weep	mark
24	weep	weep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	17 left	advcl
25	alone	alone	ADV	_	24 weep	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past · perfect	the mermaid		board			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on board=Location
2	look	to-infinitive	the mermaid not said here				at the silks	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at silk=Theme
3	leave	past	the mermaid	the Prince	the shore	then		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent prince=Theme on shore=Location
4	weep	to-infinitive	the mermaid not said here				alone property	vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=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.

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