Exam question 1 · Old Tales, Whittington and His Cat, part 27: Dick's cat wi…

On what grounds did Mr. Fitzwarren decline Miss Alice's offer of money for Dick's venture?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: grounds, Miss, Dick · What happens: do, offer, venture · To what, where: offer, money

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1968 «Old Tales, Whittington and His Cat, part 27: Dick's cat wins his place at court across the sea» 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	On	on	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	grounds	grounds	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Fitzwarren	nmod:desc
6	Fitzwarren	Fitzwarren	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 decline	compound
7	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 Miss	nmod:desc
8	Miss	Miss	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 offer	nmod:poss
9	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Miss	flat
10	's	's	PART	_	8 Miss	case
11	offer	offer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 money	case
13	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 offer	nmod
14	for	for	ADP	_	17 venture	case
15	Dick	Dick	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 venture	nmod:poss
16	's	's	PART	_	15 Dick	case
17	venture	venture	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past	grounds	Miss Fitzwarren decline's offer of money	for Dick's venture	tree rules
2	offer		Miss Fitzwarren decline	money		nom offer «communication transitive»: poss=agent of=patient
3	venture		Dick			nom venture «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 right answer

Because the venture must be the servant's own property

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	10 property	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 venture	det
3	venture	venture	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 servant	nsubj
4	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 servant	aux
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 servant	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 servant	det
7	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 property	compound
8	's	's	PART	_	7 servant	case
9	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 property	amod
10	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	must	the venture					's the servant	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Because the money was too small

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	6 small	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 money	det
3	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 small	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 small	cop
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 small	advmod
6	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the money					small property	tree rules

Option 3

Because the money had been given by the girl's own father

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	6 given	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 money	det
3	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 given	nsubj:pass
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 given	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 given	aux:pass
6	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	by	by	ADP	_	12 father	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 girl	det
9	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 father	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 girl	case
11	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 father	amod
12	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 given	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	past · perfect · passive	the girl's own father	the money					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 4

Because the rules of the house say that only what a servant owns may be sent to sea, and Alice's money was not his

The tree, 25 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	7 say	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 rules	det
3	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 say	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 house	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 house	det
6	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 rules	nmod
7	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	16 sent	mark
9	only	only	ADV	_	10 what	advmod
10	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 sent	obl
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 servant	det
12	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 owns	nsubj
13	owns	own	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 what	acl:relcl
14	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 sent	aux
15	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	16 sent	aux:pass
16	sent	send	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 say	ccomp
17	to	to	ADP	_	18 sea	case
18	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 sent	obl
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 his	punct
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 his	cc
21	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	23 money	nmod:poss
22	's	's	PART	_	21 Alice	case
23	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 his	nsubj
24	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 his	cop
25	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	26 his	advmod
26	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 say	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	the rules of the house			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	own	present	a servant			vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
3	send	may · passive			sea	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: to sea=Destination
4	not is a	past	Alice's money	servant		tree rules
5	rule		the house			nom rule «cognition 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/1968-pg7439-part27/e1/