Exam question 2 · Russian Folk-Tales, Koshchei the Deathless, part 24: Ivan…

By what means did the Prince obtain the egg from the depths of the sea?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Prince · What happens: mean, obtain · To what, where: egg, depths

This is exam question 2 of lesson 432 «Russian Folk-Tales, Koshchei the Deathless, part 24: Ivan wins Koshchei's death and brings the ring home» 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	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 obtain	advcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 obtain	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Prince	det
6	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 obtain	nsubj
7	obtain	obtain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 egg	det
9	egg	egg	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 obtain	obj
10	from	from	ADP	_	12 depths	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 depths	det
12	depths	depth	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 obtain	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 sea	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 sea	det
15	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 depths	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 obtain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	obtain	past · do-support	the Prince	the egg		the depths of the sea			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent egg=Theme from depth=Source

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 pike gave it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pike	det
2	pike	pike	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 gave	nsubj
3	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 gave	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	past	the pike	it					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

the crow flew it back

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 crow	det
2	crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 flew	nsubj
3	flew	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 flew	obj
5	back	back	ADV	_	3 flew	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly back	past	the crow	it					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme

Option 3

a diver fetched it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 diver	det
2	diver	diver	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fetched	nsubj
3	fetched	fetch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 fetched	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fetch	past	a diver	it					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

the pike returned it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pike	det
2	pike	pike	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	nsubj
3	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 returned	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	return	past	the pike	it					vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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/432-pg22373-part24/e2/