Exam question 3 · Folk-Tales, The Shepherd and the Dragon: the shepherd's do…

Upon whose instruction was the stranger's dog despatched to retrieve nourishment from the palace?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: dog · What happens: be, despatch, retrieve · To what, where: dog, nourishment, palace

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1941 «Folk-Tales, The Shepherd and the Dragon: the shepherd's dog slays the dragon, the false coachman takes the reward, and the shepherd returns to win the princess back» 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	Upon	upon	ADP	_	3 instruction	case
2	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	3 instruction	nmod:poss
3	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 despatched	obl
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 dog	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 stranger	det
6	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dog	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 stranger	case
8	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 despatched	nsubj
9	despatched	despatch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	to	to	PART	_	11 retrieve	mark
11	retrieve	retrieve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 despatched	xcomp
12	nourishment	nourishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 retrieve	obj
13	from	from	ADP	_	15 palace	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 palace	det
15	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 retrieve	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 despatched	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the stranger's dog			tree rules
2	despatch	past	the stranger's dog			upon instruction	tree rules
3	retrieve	to-infinitive	the stranger's dog not said here	nourishment	the palace		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent nourishment=Theme from palace=Source

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 coachman's secret order

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 coachman	det
2	coachman	coachman	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 order	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 coachman	case
4	secret	secret	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 order	amod
5	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	order		the coachman						nom order «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

the princess's quiet plea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 princess	det
2	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 plea	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 princess	case
4	quiet	quiet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 plea	amod
5	plea	plea	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

the stranger's own command

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 stranger	det
2	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 command	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 stranger	case
4	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 command	amod
5	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	command		the stranger						nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

the stranger's own command, given from his cell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 stranger	det
2	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 command	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 stranger	case
4	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 command	amod
5	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 given	punct
7	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 command	acl
8	from	from	ADP	_	10 cell	case
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 cell	nmod:poss
10	cell	cell	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 given	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	participle		the stranger's own command not said here		his cell			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	command		the stranger						nom command «communication 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/1941-pg7277-part78/e3/