Exam question 3 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shepherd of Myddvai: the lake-maid…

By what means did the shepherd of Myddvai identify the lake-maiden among her sisters?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: shepherd · What happens: mean, do, identify · To what, where: lake maiden

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1993 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shepherd of Myddvai: the lake-maiden leaves after three blows» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 shepherd	det
6	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 identify	nsubj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 Myddvai	case
8	Myddvai	Myddvai	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 shepherd	nmod
9	identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	parataxis
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 maiden	det
11	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 maiden	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 lake	punct
13	maiden	maiden	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 identify	obj
14	among	among	ADP	_	16 sisters	case
15	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 sisters	nmod:poss
16	sisters	sister	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 identify	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	do	past				vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality
3	identify	present	the shepherd of Myddvai	the lake maiden	among shepherd's sisters	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent maiden=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 right answer

By the strap of her sandal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 strap	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 strap	det
3	strap	strap	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 sandal	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 sandal	nmod:poss
6	sandal	sandal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 strap	nmod

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

Option 2

By the tiny silver strap of the sandal she wore on her left foot

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	5 strap	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 strap	det
3	tiny	tiny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 strap	amod
4	silver	silver	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 strap	compound
5	strap	strap	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 wore	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 sandal	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sandal	det
8	sandal	sandal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 strap	nmod
9	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 wore	nsubj
10	wore	wear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	on	on	ADP	_	14 foot	case
12	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 foot	nmod:poss
13	left	left	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 foot	amod
14	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 wore	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wear	past	she			her left foot		by the tiny silver strap of the sandal	vn wipe_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

By the strap of her sandal, which was the only thing he could see

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 strap	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 strap	det
3	strap	strap	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 sandal	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 sandal	nmod:poss
6	sandal	sandal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 strap	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 thing	punct
8	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 thing	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 thing	cop
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 thing	det
11	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 thing	amod
12	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 sandal	appos
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 see	nsubj
14	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 see	aux
15	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 thing	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	her sandal	the only thing					tree rules
2	see	could	he	the only thing not said here					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus

Option 4

By the ribbon of her dress

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 ribbon	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 ribbon	det
3	ribbon	ribbon	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 dress	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 dress	nmod:poss
6	dress	dress	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ribbon	nmod

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/1993-pg7885-part12/e3/