Exam question 4 · Stories of Old England, King Canute on the Seashore: Canut…

What did the sovereign assert regarding the sole ruler capable of governing the sea?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sovereign · What happens: assert, regard, govern · To what, where: sole ruler, sea

This is exam question 4 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 assert	obj
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 assert	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sovereign	det
4	sovereign	sovereign	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 assert	nsubj
5	assert	assert	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	regarding	regard	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 capable	csubj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 ruler	det
8	sole	sole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 ruler	amod
9	ruler	ruler	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 regarding	obj
10	capable	capable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 assert	ccomp
11	of	of	SCONJ	_	12 governing	mark
12	governing	govern	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 capable	advcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 sea	det
14	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 governing	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 assert	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	assert	past · do-support	the sovereign		vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme
2	regard	gerund		the sole ruler	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ruler=Theme
3	govern	gerund	the sovereign not said here	the sea	vn supervision-95.2.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent sea=Theme

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

That one King is all-powerful and the sea must obey him alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 King	nsubj
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 King	nummod
3	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 powerful	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 powerful	cop
5	all	all	ADV	_	7 powerful	advmod
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 all	punct
7	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 obey	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 sea	det
10	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 obey	nsubj
11	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 obey	aux
12	obey	obey	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 powerful	conj
13	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 obey	obj
14	alone	alone	ADV	_	12 obey	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	one King					all, powerful property	tree rules
2	obey	must	the sea	King				alone property	vn abide_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 2

That no king on earth, not even he, can command the tides of the sea

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 king	det
2	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 king	det
3	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 command	nsubj
4	on	on	ADP	_	5 earth	case
5	earth	earth	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 king	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 he	punct
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 he	advmod
8	even	even	ADV	_	9 he	advmod
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 king	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 king	punct
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 command	aux
12	command	command	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 tides	det
14	tides	tide	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 command	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 sea	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 sea	det
17	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 tides	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	command	can	that king on earth he	the tides of the sea					vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent tide=Eventuality
2	tide		the sea						nom tide «event intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3

That one man rules the land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 rules	nsubj
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 man	nummod
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 rules	compound
4	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 land	det
6	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 rules	appos

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

That one King is all-powerful

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 King	nsubj
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 King	nummod
3	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 powerful	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 powerful	cop
5	all	all	ADV	_	7 powerful	advmod
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 all	punct
7	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	one King					all, powerful property	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/e4/