Exam question 2 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Herd Boy, part 27: the herd wins t…

By what means did the herd demonstrate his entitlement to the hand of the princess?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: herd · What happens: mean, demonstrate · To what, where: entitlement, hand

This is exam question 2 of lesson 2008 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Herd Boy, part 27: the herd wins the princess by untying the heads, then is taken to the loch» 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=Rel	7 demonstrate	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 demonstrate	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 herd	det
6	herd	herd	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 demonstrate	nsubj
7	demonstrate	demonstrate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 entitlement	nmod:poss
9	entitlement	entitlement	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 demonstrate	obj
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 hand	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 hand	det
12	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 demonstrate	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 princess	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 princess	det
15	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 hand	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 demonstrate	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	demonstrate	past · do-support	the herd	herd's entitlement	the hand of the princess				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent entitlement=Topic to hand=Recipient

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

by playing his harp until the knot fell loose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 playing	mark
2	playing	play	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 harp	nmod:poss
4	harp	harp	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 playing	obj
5	until	until	SCONJ	_	8 fell	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 knot	det
7	knot	knot	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fell	nsubj
8	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 playing	advcl
9	loose	loose	ADV	_	8 fell	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	play	gerund		his harp					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harp=Theme
2	fall	past	the knot					loose property	vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

by loosing the heads from the knot without severing them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 loosing	mark
2	loosing	lose	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 heads	det
4	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 loosing	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 knot	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 knot	det
7	knot	knot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 loosing	obl
8	without	without	SCONJ	_	9 severing	mark
9	severing	sever	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 loosing	advcl
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 severing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	gerund		the heads		the knot			vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent head=Theme from knot=Initial_Location
2	sever	gerund		heads = head					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 3

by loosing the heads from the knot without ever severing them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 loosing	mark
2	loosing	lose	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 heads	det
4	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 loosing	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 knot	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 knot	det
7	knot	knot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 loosing	obl
8	without	without	SCONJ	_	10 severing	mark
9	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	10 severing	advmod
10	severing	sever	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 loosing	advcl
11	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 severing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	gerund		the heads		the knot			vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent head=Theme from knot=Initial_Location
2	sever	gerund		heads = head			ever		vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

by untying the heads with care

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 untying	mark
2	untying	untie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 heads	det
4	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 untying	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 care	case
6	care	care	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 untying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	untie	gerund		the heads				with care	vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient

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/2008-pg7885-part27/e2/