Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Steadfast Tin Soldier: the sol…

In what manner did the young husband describe the old man's circumstances to his wife?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: young husband · What happens: do, describe · To what, where: manner, circumstances

This is exam question 4 of lesson 300 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Steadfast Tin Soldier: the soldier is found again in a garden, then The Happy Family begins» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	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	7 husband	det
6	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 husband	amod
7	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 describe	nsubj
8	describe	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	ccomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 man	det
10	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 man	amod
11	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 circumstances	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 man	case
13	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 describe	obj
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 wife	case
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 wife	nmod:poss
16	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 describe	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past				what manner			tree rules
2	describe	present	the young husband	the old man's circumstances				to husband's wife	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent circumstance=Theme to wife=be'

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

as a man who had been very lonely for many years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	as	as	ADP	_	3 man	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 man	det
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lonely	obl
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 lonely	nsubj
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 lonely	aux
6	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 lonely	cop
7	very	very	ADV	_	8 lonely	advmod
8	lonely	lonely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	for	for	ADP	_	11 years	case
10	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 years	amod
11	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 lonely	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past · perfect					year	as a man; lonely property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

as a man who had been very lonely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	as	as	ADP	_	3 man	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 man	det
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lonely	obl
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 lonely	nsubj
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 lonely	aux
6	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 lonely	cop
7	very	very	ADV	_	8 lonely	advmod
8	lonely	lonely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past · perfect						as a man; lonely property	tree rules

Option 3

as a man who had been very poor

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	as	as	ADP	_	3 man	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 man	det
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 poor	obl
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 poor	nsubj
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 poor	aux
6	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 poor	cop
7	very	very	ADV	_	8 poor	advmod
8	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past · perfect						as a man; poor property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

as a man who had lost his wife

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	as	as	ADP	_	3 man	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 man	det
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 lost	nsubj
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 lost	aux
6	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	3 man	acl:relcl
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 wife	nmod:poss
8	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lost	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past · perfect	a man	man's wife					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Eventuality

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/300-pg1597-part27/e4/