Exam question 4 · Arabian Nights, The Tale of the Hunchback, part 36: a hung…

Which of the following identifies the matter that the Sultan expressed the greatest interest in?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Sultan · What happens: follow, identify, express · To what, where: matter, greatest interest

This is exam question 4 of lesson 196 «Arabian Nights, The Tale of the Hunchback, part 36: a hungry brother eats an imaginary feast, and the barber revives the dead hunchback» 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	5 identifies	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 identifies	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 identifies	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 identifies	nsubj
5	identifies	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 matter	det
7	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 identifies	obj
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 expressed	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Sultan	det
10	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 expressed	nsubj
11	expressed	express	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 matter	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 interest	det
13	greatest	great	ADJ	Degree=Sup	14 interest	amod
14	interest	interest	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 expressed	obj
15	in	in	ADP	_	11 expressed	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 identifies	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	identify	present		the matter	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent matter=Theme
3	express	past	the Sultan	the greatest interest	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent interest=Theme

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 tale of the tailor.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tale	det
2	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 tailor	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 tailor	det
5	tailor	tailor	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tale	nmod
6	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 tale	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell		the tailor						nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2

The stories of the tailor and his hunchback friend.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 stories	det
2	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 tailor	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 tailor	det
5	tailor	tailor	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stories	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 friend	cc
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 friend	nmod:poss
8	hunchback	hunchback	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 friend	amod
9	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tailor	conj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 stories	punct

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The stories of the barber and his brothers, and of the lame man.

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 stories	det
2	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 barber	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 barber	det
5	barber	barber	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stories	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 brothers	cc
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 brothers	nmod:poss
8	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 barber	conj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 man	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 man	cc
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 man	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 man	det
13	lame	lame	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 man	amod
14	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stories	conj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 stories	punct

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

Option 4

The hunchback's song and the drum he played for the crowd.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hunchback	det
2	hunchback	hunchback	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 song	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 hunchback	case
4	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 played	nsubj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 drum	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 drum	det
7	drum	drum	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 song	conj
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 played	nsubj
9	played	play	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	for	for	ADP	_	12 crowd	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 crowd	det
12	crowd	crowd	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 played	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 played	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	play	past	the hunchback's song and the drum					for the crowd	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent for crowd=Eventuality
2	sing		the hunchback						nom song «communication intransitive»: 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/196-pg128-part36/e4/