Exam question 3 · Yallery Brown, Yallery Brown, part 6: Tom's helper ruins h…

Upon what grounds did the master terminate Tom Tiver's employment?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: master, Tom · What happens: ground, terminate, employ · To what, where: employment

This is exam question 3 of lesson 239 «Yallery Brown, Yallery Brown, part 6: Tom's helper ruins his work and he gets the sack» 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	Upon	upon	SCONJ	_	3 grounds	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 grounds	nsubj
3	grounds	ground	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 terminate	advcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 terminate	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 master	det
6	master	master	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 terminate	nsubj
7	terminate	terminate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	Tom	Tom	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 employment	nmod:poss
9	Tiver	Tiver	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Tom	flat
10	's	's	PART	_	8 Tom	case
11	employment	employment	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 terminate	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 terminate	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ground	present			vn pocket-9.10-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	terminate	past · do-support	the master	Tom's employment	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent employment=Theme
3	employ		Tom		nom employment «state 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

the complaints of all the other lads and the master's own doubts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 complaints	det
2	complaints	complaint	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 lads	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 lads	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 lads	det
6	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 lads	amod
7	lads	lad	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 complaints	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 doubts	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 master	det
10	master	master	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 doubts	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 master	case
12	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 doubts	amod
13	doubts	doubt	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 lads	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	complain		all other lads and the master's own doubts						nom complaint «state intransitive»: of=agent
2	doubt		the master						nom doubt «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

the complaints of the other lads about his strange work

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 complaints	det
2	complaints	complaint	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 lads	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 lads	det
5	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 lads	amod
6	lads	lad	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 complaints	nmod
7	about	about	ADP	_	10 work	case
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 work	nmod:poss
9	strange	strange	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 work	amod
10	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lads	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	complain		the other lads about his strange work						nom complaint «state intransitive»: of=agent
2	work		his = he						nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

the complaints of the other lads

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 complaints	det
2	complaints	complaint	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 lads	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 lads	det
5	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 lads	amod
6	lads	lad	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 complaints	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	complain		the other lads						nom complaint «state intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

he broke his tools

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 broke	nsubj
2	broke	break	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 tools	nmod:poss
4	tools	tool	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 broke	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	past	he	his tools					vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tool=Patient

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.

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