Exam question 4 · Russian Folk-Tales, Marusia, the flower maiden

What became of the Fiend when Marusia sprinkled him with the holy water?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Marusia · What happens: become, sprinkle · To what, where: him

This is exam question 4 of lesson 413 «Russian Folk-Tales, Marusia, the flower maiden» 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	2 became	nsubj
2	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 Fiend	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Fiend	det
5	Fiend	Fiend	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 became	obl
6	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 sprinkled	advmod
7	Marusia	Marusia	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 sprinkled	nsubj
8	sprinkled	sprinkle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 became	advcl
9	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 sprinkled	obj
10	with	with	ADP	_	13 water	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 water	det
12	holy	holy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 water	amod
13	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sprinkled	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 became	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	past						of the Fiend	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	sprinkle	past	Marusia		him = he			with the holy water	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Destination with water=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 · ✓ the right answer

he was reduced to dust and ashes

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	3 reduced	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reduced	aux:pass
3	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 dust	case
5	dust	dust	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reduced	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 ashes	cc
7	ashes	ash	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 dust	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	past · passive		he				to dust and ashes goal	vn limit-76 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Patient to dust=Goal

Option 2

he was reduced to dust and ashes, scattered by a wind across the fields

The tree, 14 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	3 reduced	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reduced	aux:pass
3	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 dust	case
5	dust	dust	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reduced	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 ashes	cc
7	ashes	ash	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 dust	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 scattered	punct
9	scattered	scatter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reduced	conj
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 wind	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 wind	det
12	wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 scattered	obl
13	across	across	ADP	_	15 fields	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 fields	det
15	fields	field	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 scattered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	past · passive		he				to dust and ashes goal	vn limit-76 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Patient to dust=Goal
2	scatter	participle				the fields		by a wind	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme by wind=Destination

Option 3

he was burned by the holy fire

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	3 burned	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 burned	aux:pass
3	burned	burn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 fire	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 fire	det
6	holy	holy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fire	amod
7	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 burned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	past · passive	the holy fire	he					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

he was reduced to dust and ashes and his name was never spoken again in the village

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	3 reduced	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reduced	aux:pass
3	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 dust	case
5	dust	dust	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reduced	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 ashes	cc
7	ashes	ash	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 dust	conj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 spoken	cc
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 name	nmod:poss
10	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 spoken	nsubj:pass
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 spoken	aux:pass
12	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	13 spoken	advmod
13	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reduced	conj
14	again	again	ADV	_	13 spoken	advmod
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 village	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 village	det
17	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 spoken	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	past · passive		he			to dust and ashes goal	vn limit-76 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Patient to dust=Goal
2	not speak speech: other	past · passive		his name	the village	again		tree rules
3	name		his = he					nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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/413-pg22373-part5/e4/