Exam question 3 · English Fairy Tales, Jack Hannaford, part: a soldier trick…

Which narrative device does the author employ to signal the moral judgement of the tale?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: narrative device · What happens: employ, signal · To what, where: moral judgement

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1948 «English Fairy Tales, Jack Hannaford, part: a soldier tricks a foolish farmer's wife out of ten gold pounds, then the farmer out of his horse» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 narrative	det
2	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 device	compound
3	device	device	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 employ	nsubj
4	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 employ	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 author	det
6	author	author	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 employ	nsubj
7	employ	employ	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	9 signal	mark
9	signal	signal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 employ	xcomp
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 judgement	det
11	moral	moral	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 judgement	amod
12	judgement	judgement	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 signal	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 tale	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 tale	det
15	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 judgement	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 employ	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	present · do-support	narrative device						vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Attribute
2	signal speech: other	to-infinitive	narrative device not said here	the moral judgement of the tale					vn instr_communication-37.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent judgement=Topic

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 · ✓ the right answer

The wife's closing comparison of the farmer's foolishness with her own.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wife	det
2	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 comparison	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 wife	case
4	closing	close	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 comparison	amod
5	comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	10 foolishness	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 farmer	det
8	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 foolishness	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 farmer	case
10	foolishness	foolishness	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 comparison	nmod
11	with	with	ADP	_	13 own	case
12	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 own	nmod:poss
13	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 foolishness	nmod
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 comparison	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	close	gerund							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	compare		the wife	the farmer's foolishness with farmer's own					nom comparison «act transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 2

The soldier's final boast about his cleverness.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 soldier	det
2	soldier	soldier	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 boast	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 soldier	case
4	final	final	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 boast	amod
5	boast	boast	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	about	about	ADP	_	8 cleverness	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 cleverness	nmod:poss
8	cleverness	cleverness	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 boast	nmod
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 boast	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	boast		the soldier					about his cleverness	nom boast «communication intransitive»: poss=agent about=obl

Option 3

The wife's comparison of the farmer with herself.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wife	det
2	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 comparison	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 wife	case
4	comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 farmer	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 farmer	det
7	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 comparison	nmod
8	with	with	ADP	_	9 herself	case
9	herself	herself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	7 farmer	nmod
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 comparison	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	compare		the wife	the farmer with farmer					nom comparison «act transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 4

The wife's closing comparison of the farmer's foolishness with her own, which tells the reader who is the bigger fool.

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wife	det
2	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 comparison	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 wife	case
4	closing	close	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 comparison	amod
5	comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 tells	nsubj
6	of	of	ADP	_	10 foolishness	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 farmer	det
8	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 foolishness	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 farmer	case
10	foolishness	foolishness	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 comparison	nmod
11	with	with	ADP	_	13 own	case
12	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 own	nmod:poss
13	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 foolishness	nmod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 tells	punct
15	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 tells	nsubj
16	tells	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 reader	det
18	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 tells	iobj
19	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	23 fool	nsubj
20	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	23 fool	cop
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 fool	det
22	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	23 fool	amod
23	fool	fool	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 reader	acl:relcl
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	16 tells	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	close	gerund				vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	tell speech: assert	present	the wife's closing comparison of the farmer's foolishness with comparison's own		the reader	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent reader=Recipient
3	is a	present	the reader	the bigger fool		tree rules
4	compare		the wife	the farmer's foolishness with comparison's own		nom comparison «act transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

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/1948-pg7439-part7/e3/