Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Birdcatcher and the Cock, part 14: a b…

Why did the Miller and his son carry the Ass over the bridge?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Miller · What happens: carry · To what, where: Ass, bridge

This is exam question 4 of lesson 393 «Aesop's Fables, The Birdcatcher and the Cock, part 14: a bird begs for its life, a Cock argues, and many short animal tales follow» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	8 carry	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 carry	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Miller	det
4	Miller	Miller	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 carry	nsubj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 son	cc
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 son	nmod:poss
7	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 Miller	conj
8	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Ass	det
10	Ass	ass	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 carry	obj
11	over	over	ADP	_	13 bridge	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 bridge	det
13	bridge	bridge	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 carry	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 carry	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	past · do-support	the Miller and his son	the Ass		the bridge			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ass=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

They wanted to keep it from falling

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 keep	mark
4	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 keep	obj
6	from	from	SCONJ	_	7 falling	mark
7	falling	fall	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 keep	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	want	past	They		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	keep not said to happen	to-infinitive	They not said here	it	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	fall	gerund	They not said here		vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The bridge was broken

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bridge	det
2	bridge	bridge	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 broken	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 broken	aux:pass
4	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	past · passive		the bridge					vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

They had tied its legs to carry it on a pole

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 tied	nsubj:pass
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 tied	aux
3	tied	tie	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 legs	nmod:poss
5	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 tied	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 carry	mark
7	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 tied	advcl
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 carry	obj
9	on	on	ADP	_	11 pole	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 pole	det
11	pole	pole	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 carry	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	past · perfect · passive		They					vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP ADJP»: subject=Patient leg=Result
2	carry	to-infinitive		it		a pole			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The Ass refused to cross the bridge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Ass	det
2	Ass	ass	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 refused	nsubj
3	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 cross	mark
5	cross	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 refused	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bridge	det
7	bridge	bridge	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cross	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	refuse	past	the Ass						vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not cross	to-infinitive	the Ass not said here	the bridge					vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bridge=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/393-pg21-part14/e4/