Exam question 4 · Russian Folk-Tales, Koshchei the Deathless, part 23: Ivan…

What did the inscription upon the rock declare would be granted to the person who flung it?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: inscription, person · What happens: do, declare, grant, fling · To what, where: inscription, person

This is exam question 4 of lesson 431 «Russian Folk-Tales, Koshchei the Deathless, part 23: Ivan finds a horse, flings a rock, and reaches his mother» 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 did	nsubj
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 inscription	det
4	inscription	inscription	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 granted	nsubj:pass
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 rock	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 rock	det
7	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 inscription	nmod
8	declare	declare	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 inscription	acl:relcl
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 granted	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 granted	aux:pass
11	granted	grant	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 did	parataxis
12	to	to	ADP	_	14 person	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 person	det
14	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 granted	obl
15	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 flung	nsubj
16	flung	fling	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 person	acl:relcl
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 flung	obj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	do	past				vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	declare speech: other	infinitive	the inscription upon the rock not said here			vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
3	grant	would · passive		the inscription upon the rock	the person	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: subject=Theme to person=Goal
4	fling	past	the person	inscription		vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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 · ← Mova's choice

A kingdom would be his

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 kingdom	det
2	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 his	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 his	cop
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 kingdom	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	would	a kingdom not said here	his = he					tree rules

Option 2

A reward would be given

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 reward	det
2	reward	reward	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 given	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 given	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 given	aux:pass
5	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	would · passive		a reward					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3

A crown

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 crown	det
2	crown	crown	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A way would be opened

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 way	det
2	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 opened	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 opened	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 opened	aux:pass
5	opened	open	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	would · passive		a way					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=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/431-pg22373-part23/e4/