Exam question 2 · Slavonic Myths, Ivan Popyalof, part 16: Ivan kills three s…

By what means did the brothers subdue the Snake's wife at the twelve doors?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: brothers · What happens: mean, do, subdue · To what, where: wife, twelve doors

This is exam question 2 of lesson 424 «Slavonic Myths, Ivan Popyalof, part 16: Ivan kills three snakes and tricks the Snake's wife» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 brothers	det
6	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 subdue	nsubj
7	subdue	subdue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	parataxis
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Snake	det
9	Snake	Snake	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 wife	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 Snake	case
11	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 subdue	obj
12	at	at	ADP	_	15 doors	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 doors	det
14	twelve	twelve	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	15 doors	nummod
15	doors	door	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 subdue	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	do	past				vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality
3	subdue	present	the brothers	the Snake's wife	the twelve doors	vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Patient

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

by pinning her down with a heavy chain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 pinning	mark
2	pinning	pin	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pinning	obj
4	down	down	ADP	_	2 pinning	compound:prt
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 chain	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 chain	det
7	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 chain	amod
8	chain	chain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pinning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pin down	gerund		her = she				with a heavy chain	vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP PP.co-patient PP.instrument»: agent=Agent she=Patient with chain=Instrument

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

by burning her with a hot iron rod

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 burning	mark
2	burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 burning	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	8 rod	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 rod	det
6	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 rod	amod
7	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 rod	compound
8	rod	rod	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	gerund		her = she				with a hot iron rod	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent she=Patient with rod=Instrument

Option 3

by cutting off her tongue with an axe and burning it in the fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 cutting	mark
2	cutting	cut	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	off	off	ADP	_	2 cutting	compound:prt
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 tongue	nmod:poss
5	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cutting	obj
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 axe	case
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 axe	det
8	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cutting	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 burning	cc
10	burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 cutting	conj
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 burning	obj
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 fire	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 fire	det
14	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 burning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut off	gerund		her tongue				with a axe	vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector tongue=Eventuality
2	burn	gerund		tongue		the fire			vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

by seizing her tongue with iron pincers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 seizing	mark
2	seizing	seize	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 tongue	nmod:poss
4	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 seizing	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 pincers	case
6	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 pincers	compound
7	pincers	pincer	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 seizing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seize	gerund		her tongue				with iron pincers	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=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/424-pg22373-part16/e2/