Exam question 2 · Russian Tales, The Water Snake: a girl promises to marry a…

By what means did the mother ensure the destruction of Osip?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: mother · What happens: mean, ensure, destroy · To what, where: destruction, Osip

This is exam question 2 of lesson 434 «Russian Tales, The Water Snake: a girl promises to marry a snake, and her mother kills him» 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=Rel	7 ensure	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 ensure	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 mother	det
6	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ensure	nsubj
7	ensure	ensure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 destruction	det
9	destruction	destruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ensure	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 Osip	case
11	Osip	Osip	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 destruction	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 ensure	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	ensure	past · do-support	the mother	the destruction of Osip	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition destruction=Theme
3	destroy			Osip	nom destruction «act transitive»: of=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

By severing his head with an axe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 severing	mark
2	severing	sever	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 head	nmod:poss
4	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 severing	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 axe	case
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 axe	det
7	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 severing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sever	gerund		his head				with a axe	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme

Option 2

By striking him with a stone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 striking	mark
2	striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 striking	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 stone	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 stone	det
6	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 striking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	gerund		him = he				with a stone	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with stone=Instrument

Option 3

By drowning him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 drowning	mark
2	drowning	drown	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 drowning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drown	gerund		him = he					vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 4

By burning him with fire

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	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 burning	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 fire	case
5	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	gerund		him = he				with fire	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with fire=Instrument

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.

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