Exam question 2 · Tales of Honor, Damon and Pythias: a friend offers to take…

Upon what basis did the Spartan reply to King Philip's threat consist?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: basis, Spartan reply · What happens: do, consist · To what, where: Spartan reply

This is exam question 2 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	Upon	upon	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	basis	basis	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 reply	det
6	Spartan	spartan	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 reply	amod
7	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	to	to	ADP	_	12 threat	case
9	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Philip	nmod:desc
10	Philip	Philip	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 threat	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 Philip	case
12	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 consist	obl
13	consist	consist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 reply	acl:relcl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	basis	the Spartan reply					tree rules
2	consist	infinitive	the Spartan reply not said here					to Philip King's threat	tree rules

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

A single phrase of open surrender

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 phrase	det
2	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 phrase	amod
3	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 surrender	case
5	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 surrender	amod
6	surrender	surrender	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 phrase	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	phrase			open surrender					nom phrase «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

A single word expressing defiance and a refusal to bow down to the king

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 word	det
2	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 word	amod
3	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	expressing	express	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 word	acl
5	defiance	defiance	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 expressing	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 refusal	cc
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 refusal	det
8	refusal	refusal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 defiance	conj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 bow	mark
10	bow	bow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 expressing	advcl
11	down	down	ADV	_	10 bow	advmod
12	to	to	ADP	_	14 king	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 king	det
14	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 bow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	express	gerund	a single word not said here	defiance and a refusal					vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent defiance=Theme
2	bow down	to-infinitive	a single word not said here					to the king; down property	vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.pivot»: agent=Agent to king=Pivot

Option 3

A long and detailed letter expressing defiance toward the king and his armies

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 letter	det
2	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 letter	amod
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 detailed	cc
4	detailed	detailed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 long	conj
5	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	expressing	express	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 letter	acl
7	defiance	defiance	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 expressing	obj
8	toward	toward	ADP	_	10 king	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 king	det
10	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 expressing	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 armies	cc
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 armies	nmod:poss
13	armies	army	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 letter	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	express	gerund	a long letter and king's armies not said here	defiance				toward the king	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent defiance=Theme

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

A single word expressing defiance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 word	det
2	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 word	amod
3	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	expressing	express	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 word	acl
5	defiance	defiance	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 expressing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	express	gerund	a single word not said here	defiance					vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent defiance=Theme

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/353-pg18442-part13/e2/