Exam question 1 · Stories of Old England, King Canute on the Seashore: Canut…

With reference to the text, what was the outcome of King Canute's command to the sea?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reference, King · What happens: be, command · To what, where: outcome · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 342 «Stories of Old England, King Canute on the Seashore: Canute orders the sea to stop and gets soaked» 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	With	with	ADP	_	2 reference	case
2	reference	reference	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 text	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 text	det
5	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reference	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 outcome	punct
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	10 outcome	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 outcome	cop
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 outcome	det
10	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reference	conj
11	of	of	ADP	_	15 command	case
12	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 command	nmod:poss
13	Canute	Canute	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 King	flat
14	's	's	PART	_	12 King	case
15	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 outcome	nmod
16	to	to	ADP	_	18 sea	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sea	det
18	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 command	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 reference	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	reference to the text and the outcome	the outcome				of King's command to the sea	tree rules
2	command		King					to the sea	nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent to=obl

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 sea obeyed at first, but then rose far above the king and drowned his entire court

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sea	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 obeyed	nsubj
3	obeyed	obey	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 first	case
5	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	3 obeyed	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 rose	punct
7	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 rose	cc
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	9 rose	advmod
9	rose	rise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 obeyed	conj
10	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	9 rose	advmod
11	above	above	ADP	_	13 king	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 king	det
13	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 rose	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 drowned	cc
15	drowned	drown	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 obeyed	conj
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 court	nmod:poss
17	entire	entire	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 court	amod
18	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 drowned	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	obey	past	the sea				vn abide_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	rise	past	the sea not said here		then	above the king; far property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent above king=Location
3	drown	past	the sea not said here	sea's entire court			vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent court=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The tide stopped for a moment, then rose higher and soaked the king's robe

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tide	det
2	tide	tide	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 stopped	nsubj
3	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 moment	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 moment	det
6	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 stopped	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 rose	punct
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	9 rose	advmod
9	rose	rise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 stopped	conj
10	higher	high	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 rose	xcomp
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 soaked	cc
12	soaked	soak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 rose	conj
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 king	det
14	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 robe	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 king	case
16	robe	robe	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 soaked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	stop	past	the tide		moment		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	rise	past	the tide not said here		then	high property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	soak	participle	the tide not said here	the king's robe			vn wipe_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent robe=Theme

Option 3

The sea ignored the king's words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sea	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ignored	nsubj
3	ignored	ignore	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 king	det
5	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 words	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 king	case
7	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ignored	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ignore	past	the sea	the king's words					vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
2	word		the king						nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The tide continued to rise and wetted the king's robe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tide	det
2	tide	tide	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 continued	nsubj
3	continued	continue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 rise	mark
5	rise	rise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 continued	xcomp
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 wetted	cc
7	wetted	wett	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 continued	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 king	det
9	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 robe	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 king	case
11	robe	robe	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 wetted	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	continue	past	the tide		vn continue-55.3 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	rise	to-infinitive	the tide not said here		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	wett	past	the tide not said here	the king's robe	tree rules

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/342-pg18442-part2/e1/