Exam question 3 · Celtic Fairy Tales, Conall Yellowclaw, part 8: a theft fro…

What condition did the king impose upon Conall in exchange for the life of his youngest son?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: condition · What happens: impose · To what, where: exchange

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1989 «Celtic Fairy Tales, Conall Yellowclaw, part 8: a theft from the king's stable, then a tale of cats» 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	What	what	DET	PronType=Int	2 condition	det
2	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 impose	nsubj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 impose	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 king	det
5	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 impose	nsubj
6	impose	impose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 Conall	case
8	Conall	Conall	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 impose	obl
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 exchange	case
10	exchange	exchange	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 impose	obl
11	for	for	ADP	_	13 life	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 life	det
13	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 impose	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	17 son	case
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 son	nmod:poss
16	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	17 son	amod
17	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 life	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 impose	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	impose	past · do-support	what condition			exchange		upon Conall; for the life of king's youngest son	vn enforce-63 «NP V that S»: agent=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

A recital of a tale of equal hardship

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 recital	det
2	recital	recital	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 tale	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 tale	det
5	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 recital	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 hardship	case
7	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 hardship	amod
8	hardship	hardship	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tale	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recite			a tale of equal hardship					nom recital «communication transitive»: of=patient
2	tell		equal hardship						nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2

A promise of a tale of equal woe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 promise	det
2	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 tale	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 tale	det
5	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 promise	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 woe	case
7	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 woe	amod
8	woe	woe	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tale	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	promise			a tale of equal woe					nom promise «communication transitive»: of=patient
2	tell		equal woe						nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

A telling of a tale of equal sorrow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 telling	det
2	telling	telling	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 tale	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 tale	det
5	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 telling	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 sorrow	case
7	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 sorrow	amod
8	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tale	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell			a tale of equal sorrow					nom telling «communication transitive»: of=patient
2	tell		equal sorrow						nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

A harder tale

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 tale	det
2	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 tale	amod
3	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

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/1989-pg7885-part8/e3/