Exam question 1 · Tales of Honor, Damon and Pythias: a friend offers to take…

Which of the following describes the conduct of Damon toward his friend Pythias?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, describe, conduct · To what, where: conduct, Damon

This is exam question 1 of lesson 353 «Tales of Honor, Damon and Pythias: a friend offers to take his friend's place in prison» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 describes	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 describes	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 describes	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 describes	nsubj
5	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 conduct	det
7	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 describes	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 Damon	case
9	Damon	Damon	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 conduct	nmod
10	toward	toward	ADP	_	12 friend	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 friend	nmod:poss
12	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 conduct	nmod
13	Pythias	Pythias	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 friend	appos
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present	the conduct of Damon	toward Damon's friend	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent conduct=Theme
3	conduct		Damon	toward Damon's friend	nom conduct «act transitive»: of=patient toward=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

He offered to die in his friend's place and begged the tyrant to spare the friend

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 offered	nsubj
2	offered	offer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 die	mark
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 offered	xcomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	9 place	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 friend	nmod:poss
7	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 place	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 friend	case
9	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 die	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 begged	cc
11	begged	beg	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 offered	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 tyrant	det
13	tyrant	tyrant	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 begged	obj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 spare	mark
15	spare	spare	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 begged	advcl
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 friend	det
17	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 spare	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	offer	past	He			tree rules
2	die not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here		in his friend's place	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in place=Attribute
3	beg speech: request	past	He not said here	the tyrant		vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent tyrant=Recipient
4	spare	to-infinitive	He not said here	the friend		vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent friend=Asset

Option 2

He pleaded for his friend's release

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pleaded	nsubj
2	pleaded	plead	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	7 release	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 friend	nmod:poss
5	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 release	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 friend	case
7	release	release	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pleaded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	plead speech: request	past	He					for his friend's release	tree rules

Option 3

He offered to die in his friend's place and promised to pay all the debts owed

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 offered	nsubj
2	offered	offer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 die	mark
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 offered	xcomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	9 place	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 friend	nmod:poss
7	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 place	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 friend	case
9	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 die	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 promised	cc
11	promised	promise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 offered	conj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 pay	mark
13	pay	pay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 promised	xcomp
14	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	16 debts	det:predet
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 debts	det
16	debts	debt	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 pay	obj
17	owed	owe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 pay	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	offer	past	He			tree rules
2	die not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here		in his friend's place	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in place=Attribute
3	promise speech: promise	past	He not said here			vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	pay not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here	all debts		tree rules
5	owe	participle	He not said here			vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He offered to die in his friend's place

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 offered	nsubj
2	offered	offer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 die	mark
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 offered	xcomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	9 place	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 friend	nmod:poss
7	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 place	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 friend	case
9	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 die	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	past	He						tree rules
2	die not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here					in his friend's place	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in place=Attribute

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.

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