Exam question 3 · Arabian Nights, The Talking Bird, the Singing Tree and the…

What was the Sultan's judgement concerning the fabricated account of his children's birth?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: judgement · What happens: be, concern, account · To what, where: fabricated account, birth

This is exam question 3 of lesson 233 «Arabian Nights, The Talking Bird, the Singing Tree and the Golden Water: the Sultan meets his children and his wife comes home» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Sultan	det
4	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 judgement	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Sultan	case
6	judgement	judgement	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
7	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 judgement	acl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 account	det
9	fabricated	fabricated	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 account	amod
10	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 concerning	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	15 birth	case
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 children	nmod:poss
13	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 birth	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 children	case
15	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 account	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	past	the Sultan's judgement		tree rules
2	concern	gerund	the Sultan's judgement not said here	the fabricated account of his children's birth	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus account=Experiencer
3	account			his children's birth	nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient

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 · ✓ the right answer

He recognised the falsehood after the bird spoke

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 recognised	nsubj
2	recognised	recognise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 falsehood	det
4	falsehood	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 recognised	obj
5	after	after	SCONJ	_	8 spoke	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 spoke	nsubj
8	spoke	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 recognised	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recognise	past	He	the falsehood					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer falsehood=Stimulus
2	speak speech: other	past	the bird						vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He recognised the falsehood only after the Talking Bird spoke in the saloon at dawn

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 recognised	nsubj
2	recognised	recognise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 falsehood	det
4	falsehood	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 recognised	obj
5	only	only	ADV	_	2 recognised	advmod
6	after	after	SCONJ	_	10 spoke	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Bird	det
8	Talking	Talking	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Bird	compound
9	Bird	Bird	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 spoke	nsubj
10	spoke	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 recognised	advcl
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 saloon	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 saloon	det
13	saloon	saloon	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 spoke	obl
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 dawn	case
15	dawn	dawn	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 spoke	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recognise	past	He	the falsehood					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer falsehood=Stimulus
2	speak speech: other	past	the Talking Bird			the saloon	dawn		vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

He accepted the story until the bird spoke

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 accepted	nsubj
2	accepted	accept	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 story	det
4	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accepted	obj
5	until	until	SCONJ	_	8 spoke	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 spoke	nsubj
8	spoke	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 accepted	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accept	past	He	the story					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Theme
2	speak speech: other	past	the bird						vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He doubted the tale only after the feast

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 doubted	nsubj
2	doubted	doubt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 tale	det
4	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 doubted	obj
5	only	only	ADV	_	2 doubted	advmod
6	after	after	ADP	_	8 feast	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 feast	det
8	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 doubted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	doubt	past	He	the tale			after the feast		vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tale=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/233-pg128-part73/e3/