Exam question 2 · English Folk Tales, The Lost Moon: the Evil Things bury th…

What was the condition under which the folk were permitted to speak?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: condition · What happens: be, permit, speak · To what, where: folk, condition · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 251 «English Folk Tales, The Lost Moon: the Evil Things bury the Moon in the bog, and the marsh folk find her again» 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 condition	det
4	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	under	under	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 permitted	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 folk	det
8	folk	folk	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 permitted	nsubj:pass
9	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 permitted	aux:pass
10	permitted	permit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 condition	acl:relcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 speak	mark
12	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 permitted	xcomp
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is a	past	the condition			tree rules
2	permit	past · passive		the folk	the condition	vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
3	speak speech: other not said to happen	to-infinitive				vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

silence only

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	only	only	ADV	_	1 silence	advmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

none; silence was required until they had returned home

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	none	none	PRON	PronType=Neg	3 silence	compound
2	;	;	PUNCT	_	1 none	punct
3	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 required	nsubj:pass
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 required	aux:pass
5	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	until	until	SCONJ	_	9 returned	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 returned	nsubj
8	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 returned	aux
9	returned	return	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 required	xcomp
10	home	home	ADV	_	9 returned	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	past · passive		none silence					vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	return	past · perfect	they					home property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

only the leader spoke, and only at the bridge at dusk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	only	only	ADV	_	3 leader	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 leader	det
3	leader	leader	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 spoke	nsubj
4	spoke	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 bridge	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 bridge	cc
7	only	only	ADV	_	10 bridge	advmod
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 bridge	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 bridge	det
10	bridge	bridge	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 spoke	obl
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 dusk	case
12	dusk	dusk	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 bridge	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	past	the leader			the bridge at dusk			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

they could whisper only after dark on the walk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 whisper	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 whisper	aux
3	whisper	whisper	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	3 whisper	advmod
5	after	after	ADP	_	6 dark	case
6	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 whisper	obl
7	on	on	ADP	_	9 walk	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 walk	det
9	walk	walk	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 whisper	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	whisper speech: assert	could	they			the walk	after dark		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on walk=Location

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/251-pg14241-part18/e2/