Exam question 3 · Alice in Wonderland, chapter X, part 2: The Lobster Quadri…

Ascertain the remark of the Gryphon upon Alice's expressed preference for a song.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Alice · What happens: ascertain, express, remark, prefer · To what, where: remark, Gryphon

This is exam question 3 of lesson 20 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter X, part 2: The Lobster Quadrille (poems gone wrong and Beautiful Soup)» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 remark	det
3	remark	remark	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 Gryphon	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Gryphon	det
6	Gryphon	Gryphon	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 remark	nmod
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 preference	case
8	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 preference	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Alice	case
10	expressed	express	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 preference	amod
11	preference	preference	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 remark	nmod
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 song	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 song	det
14	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 preference	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the remark of the Gryphon	upon Alice's expressed preference for a song	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent remark=Topic
2	express	participle				vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	remark			the Gryphon	upon Alice's expressed preference for a song	nom remark «communication transitive»: of=patient upon=obl
4	prefer		Alice		for a song	nom preference «feeling transitive»: poss=agent for=obl

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

«Well, that is a matter of taste»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	7 matter	punct
2	Well	well	INTJ	_	7 matter	discourse
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Well	punct
4	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 matter	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 matter	cop
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 matter	det
7	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 taste	case
9	taste	taste	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 matter	nmod
10	»	»	PUNCT	_	7 matter	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a in a quote	present	that	a matter				of taste	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

«Hm! No accounting for tastes!»

Sentence 1: «Hm!

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 Hm	punct
2	Hm	hm	INTJ	_	root	root
3	!	!	PUNCT	_	2 Hm	punct

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

Sentence 2: No accounting for tastes!»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 accounting	det
2	accounting	accounting	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	4 tastes	case
4	tastes	taste	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 accounting	nmod
5	!	!	PUNCT	_	2 accounting	punct
6	»	»	PUNCT	_	2 accounting	punct

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

Option 3

«Hm! No accounting for tastes, and I did not ask you to choose at all, child!»

Sentence 1: «Hm!

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 Hm	punct
2	Hm	hm	INTJ	_	root	root
3	!	!	PUNCT	_	2 Hm	punct

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

Sentence 2: No accounting for tastes, and I did not ask you to choose at all, child!»

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 accounting	det
2	accounting	accounting	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 ask	nsubj
3	for	for	ADP	_	4 tastes	case
4	tastes	taste	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 accounting	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 ask	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 ask	cc
7	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 ask	nsubj
8	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 ask	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 ask	advmod
10	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
11	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	10 ask	iobj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 choose	mark
13	choose	choose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 ask	xcomp
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 all	case
15	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	13 choose	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 child	punct
17	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 choose	obl
18	!	!	PUNCT	_	10 ask	punct
19	»	»	PUNCT	_	10 ask	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not ask speech: ask	past · do-support	no accounting for tastes		you				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic
2	choose not said to happen	to-infinitive	no accounting for tastes not said here	child		all			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent at all=Asset

Option 4

«Hm! Nobody asked for your opinion»

Sentence 1: «Hm!

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 Hm	punct
2	Hm	hm	INTJ	_	root	root
3	!	!	PUNCT	_	2 Hm	punct

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

Sentence 2: Nobody asked for your opinion»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 asked	nsubj
2	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	5 opinion	case
4	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 opinion	nmod:poss
5	opinion	opinion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 asked	obl
6	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 opinion	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	Nobody					for your opinion	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	opine		your						nom opinion «cognition transitive»: 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/20-alice-the-lobster-quadrille-2/e3/