Exam question 3 · More Celtic Fairy Tales, The Fisherman's Son, part 1: a po…

What was the function of the otter's pledge within the tale?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: function, otter · What happens: be, pledge

This is exam question 3 of lesson 2007 «More Celtic Fairy Tales, The Fisherman's Son, part 1: a poor fisherman promises his first son to the sea-maiden, and the son sets out» 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	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 function	det
4	function	function	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	9 pledge	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 otter	det
7	otter	otter	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 pledge	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 otter	case
9	pledge	pledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 function	nmod
10	within	within	ADP	_	12 tale	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 tale	det
12	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 pledge	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the function of the otter's pledge within the tale						tree rules
2	pledge		the otter					within the tale	nom pledge «possession transitive»: poss=agent within=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 · ✓ the right answer

To promise aid where swimming would be useful

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 promise	mark
2	promise	promise	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	aid	aid	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 useful	nsubj
4	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	5 swimming	advmod
5	swimming	swim	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 aid	acl
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 useful	aux
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 useful	cop
8	useful	useful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 promise	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	promise speech: promise	to-infinitive			vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	swim	gerund			vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	is	would	aid	useful property	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

To promise help in the water and to carry the herd safely across the river when the giant's men came

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 promise	mark
2	promise	promise	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 promise	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 water	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 water	det
6	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 promise	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 carry	cc
8	to	to	PART	_	9 carry	mark
9	carry	carry	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 promise	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 herd	det
11	herd	herd	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 carry	obj
12	safely	safely	ADV	_	9 carry	advmod
13	across	across	ADP	_	15 river	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 river	det
15	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 carry	obl
16	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	21 came	advmod
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 giant	det
18	giant	giant	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 men	nmod:poss
19	's	's	PART	_	18 giant	case
20	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 came	nsubj
21	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 carry	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	promise speech: promise	to-infinitive		help	the water		vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent help=Theme
2	carry	to-infinitive		the herd	the river	safely property	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herd=Theme
3	come	past	the giant's men				vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

To give him a lift across the wide river

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 give	mark
2	give	give	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 give	iobj
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 lift	det
5	lift	lift	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 give	obj
6	across	across	ADP	_	9 river	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 river	det
8	wide	wide	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 river	amod
9	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 give	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	to-infinitive		a lift	him = he	the wide river			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient lift=Theme

Option 4

To offer the herd a safe passage through the deep lake and to rescue the dog from the flood

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 offer	mark
2	offer	offer	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 herd	det
4	herd	herd	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 offer	obj
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 passage	det
6	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 passage	amod
7	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 offer	obj
8	through	through	ADP	_	11 lake	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 lake	det
10	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 lake	amod
11	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 offer	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 rescue	cc
13	to	to	PART	_	14 rescue	mark
14	rescue	rescue	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 offer	conj
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 dog	det
16	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 rescue	obj
17	from	from	ADP	_	19 flood	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 flood	det
19	flood	flood	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 rescue	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	to-infinitive		the herd		the deep lake			vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent herd=Goal passage=Theme
2	rescue	to-infinitive		the dog		the flood			vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent dog=Theme from flood=Source

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/2007-pg7885-part26/e3/