Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, part 2: a m…

Under what condition did the old grave woman agree to assist the bereaved mother?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old grave woman · What happens: agree, assist, bereave · To what, where: bereaved mother

This is exam question 3 of lesson 301 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, part 2: a mother follows Death through the snow to win back her child» 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	Under	under	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	9 agree	obj
3	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	nsubj
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 agree	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 woman	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 woman	amod
7	grave	grave	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 woman	amod
8	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 agree	nsubj
9	agree	agree	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	to	to	PART	_	11 assist	mark
11	assist	assist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 agree	xcomp
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 mother	det
13	bereaved	bereave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 mother	amod
14	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 assist	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 agree	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	roles by
1	agree speech: agree	past · do-support	the old grave woman		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: agent=Agent what=Co-Agent clause=Topic
2	assist not said to happen	to-infinitive	the old grave woman not said here	the bereaved mother	vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Beneficiary
3	bereave	participle			vn deprive-10.6.2 «NP V NP»: 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

the gift of silver coins

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 gift	det
2	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 coins	case
4	silver	silver	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 coins	compound
5	coins	coin	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 gift	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gift			silver coins					nom gift «possession transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

her black hair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 hair	nmod:poss
2	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 hair	amod
3	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

the payment of a gold ring

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 payment	det
2	payment	payment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 ring	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 ring	det
5	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ring	compound
6	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 payment	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay			a gold ring					nom payment «possession transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

the exchange of her black hair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 exchange	det
2	exchange	exchange	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 hair	case
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 hair	nmod:poss
5	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 hair	amod
6	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exchange	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exchange			her black hair					nom exchange «phenomenon transitive»: of=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/301-pg1597-part28/e3/