Exam question 3 · Celtic Fairy Tales, Conall Yellowclaw, part 9: Conall tell…

State the reason the narrator gives for severing his own finger.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: narrator · What happens: give, sever · To what, where: State reason, own finger

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1990 «Celtic Fairy Tales, Conall Yellowclaw, part 9: Conall tells the king of a tree-breaking cat fight, then of a giant's cave and a stolen ring, and ends stranded on an island» 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	State	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reason	compound
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 narrator	det
5	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gives	nsubj
6	gives	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 severing	mark
8	severing	sever	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 gives	advcl
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 finger	nmod:poss
10	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 finger	amod
11	finger	finger	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 severing	obj
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	present	the narrator	the State reason not said here					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	sever	gerund	the narrator not said here	narrator's own finger					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent finger=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

The ring would reveal where he was hiding

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ring	det
2	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reveal	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 reveal	aux
4	reveal	reveal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	8 hiding	advmod
6	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 hiding	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 hiding	aux
8	hiding	hide	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 reveal	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reveal	would	the ring						vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	hide	past · progressive	he						vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The giant's ring would reveal the king's position to the giant at once, so he cut it off

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 giant	det
2	giant	giant	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ring	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 giant	case
4	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reveal	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 reveal	aux
6	reveal	reveal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 king	det
8	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 position	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 king	case
10	position	position	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reveal	obj
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 giant	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 giant	det
13	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 reveal	obl
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 once	case
15	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	13 giant	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 cut	punct
17	so	so	ADV	_	19 cut	advmod
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 cut	nsubj
19	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 reveal	advcl
20	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 cut	obj
21	off	off	ADP	_	19 cut	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reveal	would	the giant's ring	the king's position	the giant				vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent position=Topic to giant=Recipient
2	cut off	past	king	position					vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector it=Eventuality

Option 3

The giant's ring could track where he hid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 giant	det
2	giant	giant	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ring	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 giant	case
4	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 track	nsubj
5	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 track	aux
6	track	track	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	9 hid	advmod
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 hid	nsubj
9	hid	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 track	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	track	could	the giant's ring						vn stalk-35.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	hide	past	giant						vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The giant's magic ring would reveal his position

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 giant	det
2	giant	giant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ring	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 giant	case
4	magic	magic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 ring	amod
5	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 reveal	nsubj
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 reveal	aux
7	reveal	reveal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 position	nmod:poss
9	position	position	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 reveal	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reveal	would	the giant's magic ring	giant's position					vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent position=Topic

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/1990-pg7885-part9/e3/