Exam question 2 · Arabian Nights, Noureddin Ali and the Fair Persian: Saouy'…

By whose authority did the vizir Giafar arrive at Balsora, and for what purpose was he commissioned?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Giafar · What happens: do, arrive, commission · To what, where: vizir, Balsora, purpose

This is exam question 2 of lesson 210 «Arabian Nights, Noureddin Ali and the Fair Persian: Saouy's plot nearly kills Noureddin, but the vizir arrives in time» 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	_	3 authority	case
2	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	3 authority	nmod:poss
3	authority	authority	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
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 vizir	det
6	vizir	vizir	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	Giafar	Giafar	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 arrive	nsubj
8	arrive	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 vizir	acl:relcl
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 Balsora	case
10	Balsora	Balsora	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 arrive	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 what	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 what	cc
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 what	case
14	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	parataxis
15	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 commissioned	nsubj:pass
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 commissioned	aux:pass
17	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 commissioned	nsubj
18	commissioned	commission	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 what	acl:relcl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	past		the vizir		by authority	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vizir=Eventuality
2	arrive	present	Giafar	the vizir not said here	Balsora		tree rules
3	commission	past · passive		purpose			vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=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 · ← Mova's choice

By order of the chief eunuch, to confirm the sentence and to return the king's gold to Bagdad soon

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 order	case
2	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 confirm	obl
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 eunuch	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 eunuch	det
5	chief	chief	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 eunuch	amod
6	eunuch	eunuch	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 order	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 confirm	punct
8	to	to	PART	_	9 confirm	mark
9	confirm	confirm	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sentence	det
11	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 confirm	obj
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 return	cc
13	to	to	PART	_	14 return	mark
14	return	return	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	9 confirm	conj
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 king	det
16	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 gold	nmod:poss
17	's	's	PART	_	16 king	case
18	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 return	obj
19	to	to	ADP	_	20 Bagdad	case
20	Bagdad	Bagdad	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 return	obl
21	soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	14 return	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	confirm	to-infinitive	the sentence		by order of the chief eunuch	vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot sentence=Topic
2	return	to-infinitive	the king's gold	Bagdad	soon property	vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent gold=Theme to bagdad=Destination
3	order		the chief eunuch			nom order «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

By the Caliph's command

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	5 command	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 Caliph	det
3	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 command	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 Caliph	case
5	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	command		the Caliph						nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By the Caliph's command, to ascertain whether Noureddin lived and to bring the parties to Bagdad

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	5 command	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 Caliph	det
3	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 command	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 Caliph	case
5	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 ascertain	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 ascertain	punct
7	to	to	PART	_	8 ascertain	mark
8	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	11 lived	mark
10	Noureddin	Noureddin	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 lived	nsubj
11	lived	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 ascertain	advcl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 bring	cc
13	to	to	PART	_	14 bring	mark
14	bring	bring	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	11 lived	conj
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 parties	det
16	parties	party	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 bring	obj
17	to	to	ADP	_	18 Bagdad	case
18	Bagdad	Bagdad	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 bring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	to-infinitive				by the Caliph's command	vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	live	past	Noureddin				vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	bring	to-infinitive	Noureddin not said here	the parties	Bagdad		vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent party=Theme to bagdad=Destination
4	command		the Caliph				nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

To bring the parties to Bagdad

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 bring	mark
2	bring	bring	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 parties	det
4	parties	party	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 bring	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 Bagdad	case
6	Bagdad	Bagdad	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 bring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bring	to-infinitive		the parties	Bagdad				vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent party=Theme to bagdad=Destination

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/210-pg128-part50/e2/