Exam question 3 · The Heroes, Theseus, part 3: Theseus lifts the great stone…

Which individual sought to deprive Theseus of his inheritance once he had reached Athens?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: individual · What happens: seek, deprive, reach, inherit · To what, where: Theseus, Athens

This is exam question 3 of lesson 2044 «The Heroes, Theseus, part 3: Theseus lifts the great stone, finds his father's sword and sandals, and sets out for Athens» 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 individual	det
2	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sought	nsubj
3	sought	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 deprive	mark
5	deprive	deprive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 sought	xcomp
6	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 deprive	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 inheritance	case
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 inheritance	nmod:poss
9	inheritance	inheritance	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 Theseus	nmod
10	once	once	SCONJ	_	13 reached	mark
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 reached	nsubj
12	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 reached	aux
13	reached	reach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 deprive	advcl
14	Athens	Athens	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 reached	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 sought	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	seek	past	which individual		tree rules
2	deprive not said to happen	to-infinitive	which individual not said here	Theseus of individual's inheritance	vn deprive-10.6.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent theseus=Source
3	reach	past · perfect	individual	Athens	vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent athens=Theme
4	inherit		individual		nom inheritance «act 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

Medea, who had poisoned the old king's brother and wished her son Medus to rule

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Medea	Medea	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 poisoned	punct
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 poisoned	nsubj
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 poisoned	aux
5	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	1 Medea	acl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 king	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 king	amod
8	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 brother	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 king	case
10	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 poisoned	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 wished	cc
12	wished	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 poisoned	conj
13	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 son	nmod:poss
14	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 wished	obj
15	Medus	Medus	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 son	appos
16	to	to	PART	_	17 rule	mark
17	rule	rule	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 wished	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	poison	past · perfect	Medea	the old king's brother	vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brother=Patient
2	wish	past	Medea not said here	Medea's son	vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot son=Theme
3	rule	to-infinitive	Medea not said here		vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Medea, the sorceress who wanted her son Medus to inherit the kingdom and bury Theseus

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Medea	medea	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 sorceress	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sorceress	det
4	sorceress	sorceress	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Medea	appos
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 wanted	nsubj
6	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 sorceress	acl:relcl
7	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 son	nmod:poss
8	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wanted	obj
9	Medus	Medus	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 son	appos
10	to	to	PART	_	11 inherit	mark
11	inherit	inherit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 wanted	xcomp
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 kingdom	det
13	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 inherit	obj
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 bury	cc
15	bury	bury	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 inherit	conj
16	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 bury	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	want	past	the sorceress	her son	tree rules
2	inherit not said to happen	to-infinitive	her son not said here	the kingdom	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kingdom=Theme
3	bury	infinitive	her son not said here	Theseus	vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent theseus=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Medea, who wished her son Medus to inherit the kingdom

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Medea	Medea	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 wished	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 wished	punct
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 wished	nsubj
4	wished	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 son	nmod:poss
6	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wished	obj
7	Medus	Medus	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 son	appos
8	to	to	PART	_	9 inherit	mark
9	inherit	inherit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 wished	advcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 kingdom	det
11	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 inherit	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wish	past	Medea	Medea's son					vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot son=Theme
2	inherit	to-infinitive	Medea not said here	the kingdom					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kingdom=Theme

Option 4

The nephews, who plotted to seize the crown for themselves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 nephews	det
2	nephews	nephew	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 plotted	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 plotted	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 plotted	nsubj
5	plotted	plot	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 seize	mark
7	seize	seize	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 plotted	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 crown	det
9	crown	crown	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 seize	obj
10	for	for	ADP	_	11 themselves	case
11	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	7 seize	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	plot	past	the nephews						tree rules
2	seize	to-infinitive	the nephews not said here	the crown				for nephews = nephew	vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent crown=Theme for themselves=Beneficiary

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/2044-pg976-part3/e3/