Exam question 1 · Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonag…

Which signal did the Irish of old use to welcome strangers to a house?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: signal · What happens: do, welcome · To what, where: Irish old use, strangers

This is exam question 1 of lesson 2010 «Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonagh tricks the giant with iron cakes» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 signal	det
2	signal	signal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 use	det
5	Irish	Irish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 use	amod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 use	case
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 use	amod
8	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 welcome	mark
10	welcome	welcome	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 use	acl
11	strangers	stranger	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 welcome	obj
12	to	to	ADP	_	14 house	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 house	det
14	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 welcome	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	which signal	the Irish old use					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent use=Eventuality
2	welcome	to-infinitive	which signal not said here	strangers				to a house	vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stranger=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

A high smoke followed by three long whistles blown at the gate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 smoke	det
2	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 smoke	amod
3	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	followed	follow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 smoke	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	8 whistles	case
6	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 whistles	nummod
7	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 whistles	amod
8	whistles	whistle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 followed	obl:agent
9	blown	blow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 whistles	acl
10	at	at	ADP	_	12 gate	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 gate	det
12	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 blown	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	participle		a high smoke not said here					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	blow	participle		three long whistles not said here		the gate			vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A high smoke followed by three whistles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 smoke	det
2	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 smoke	amod
3	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	followed	follow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 smoke	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 whistles	case
6	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 whistles	nummod
7	whistles	whistle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 followed	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	participle		a high smoke not said here					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

A tall column of smoke and a bell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 column	det
2	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 column	amod
3	column	column	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 smoke	case
5	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 column	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 bell	cc
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 bell	det
8	bell	bell	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 column	conj

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

Option 4

A high smoke rising from the roof followed by three whistles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 smoke	det
2	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 smoke	amod
3	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	rising	rise	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 smoke	acl
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 roof	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 roof	det
7	roof	roof	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 rising	obl
8	followed	follow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 roof	acl
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 whistles	case
10	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 whistles	nummod
11	whistles	whistle	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 followed	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rise	gerund	a high smoke not said here			the roof			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from roof=Initial_Location
2	follow	participle		the roof not said here					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/2010-pg7885-part29/e1/