Exam question 2 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Sea-Maiden: the egg is broken and…

By what means did the hero's enterprise against the sea-maiden reach its conclusion?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reach · What happens: mean, do, conclude · To what, where: enterprise

This is exam question 2 of lesson 2009 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Sea-Maiden: the egg is broken and the sea-maiden dies» 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 hero	det
6	hero	hero	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 enterprise	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 hero	case
8	enterprise	enterprise	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
9	against	against	ADP	_	14 reach	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 reach	det
11	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 maiden	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 sea	punct
13	maiden	maiden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 reach	amod
14	reach	reach	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
15	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 conclusion	nmod:poss
16	conclusion	conclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 reach	obj
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		the hero's enterprise	against the maiden reach	tree rules
3	conclude		reach			nom conclusion «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

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 cutting the trout open

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 cutting	mark
2	cutting	cut	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 trout	det
4	trout	trout	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cutting	obj
5	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 cutting	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut	gerund		the trout				open property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset trout=Product

Option 2

By crushing the egg in his hand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 crushing	mark
2	crushing	crush	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 egg	det
4	egg	egg	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 crushing	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 hand	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 hand	nmod:poss
7	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 crushing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crush	gerund		the egg		his hand			vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By breaking the egg with his foot

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 breaking	mark
2	breaking	break	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 egg	det
4	egg	egg	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breaking	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 foot	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 foot	nmod:poss
7	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breaking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	gerund		the egg				with his foot	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent egg=Patient with foot=Instrument

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

By breaking the egg with his foot at the water's edge, while she begged him not to

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 breaking	mark
2	breaking	break	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	16 begged	advcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 egg	det
4	egg	egg	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breaking	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 foot	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 foot	nmod:poss
7	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breaking	obl
8	at	at	ADP	_	12 edge	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 water	det
10	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 edge	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 water	case
12	edge	edge	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breaking	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 breaking	punct
14	while	while	SCONJ	_	16 begged	mark
15	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 begged	nsubj
16	begged	beg	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
17	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 begged	obj
18	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 begged	advmod
19	to	to	PART	_	18 not	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	gerund	she not said here	the egg		the water's edge		with his foot	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent egg=Patient with foot=Instrument
2	not beg speech: request	past	she		him = he				vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient

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/2009-pg7885-part28/e2/