Exam question 4 · Russian Folk-Tales, The Water King and Vasilissa the Wise,…

Which of the following best explains the depth to which the King sinks in the third sea?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: King · What happens: follow, explain, sink · To what, where: depth, third sea · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 435 «Russian Folk-Tales, The Water King and Vasilissa the Wise, part 27: a wife's curse on her children, then a King and an Eagle» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 explains	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 explains	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 explains	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 explains	csubj
5	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 following	advmod
6	explains	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 depth	det
8	depth	depth	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 explains	obj
9	to	to	ADP	_	10 which	case
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 sinks	obl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 King	det
12	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 sinks	nsubj
13	sinks	sink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 depth	parataxis
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 sea	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 sea	det
16	third	third	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	17 sea	amod
17	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 sinks	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 explains	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				well property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	explain speech: assert	present		the depth			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent depth=Topic
3	sink	present	the King		the third sea	to the depth	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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

the King sinks up to his neck and then is pulled under

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 King	det
2	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 sinks	nsubj
3	sinks	sink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	up	up	ADP	_	3 sinks	compound:prt
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 neck	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 neck	nmod:poss
7	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sinks	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 pulled	cc
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	11 pulled	advmod
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 pulled	aux:pass
11	pulled	pull	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 sinks	conj
12	under	under	ADP	_	11 pulled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sink up	present	the King					to King's neck	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	pull	present · passive	the King not said here				then		vn slide-11.2 «NP V»

Option 2

up to his neck

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	up	up	ADV	_	root	root
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 neck	case
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 neck	nmod:poss
4	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 up	obl

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

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

the King sinks up to his neck

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 King	det
2	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 sinks	nsubj
3	sinks	sink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	up	up	ADP	_	3 sinks	compound:prt
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 neck	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 neck	nmod:poss
7	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sinks	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sink up	present	the King					to King's neck	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

the King sinks to his hips

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 King	det
2	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 sinks	nsubj
3	sinks	sink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 hips	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 hips	nmod:poss
6	hips	hip	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sinks	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sink	present	the King					to King's hips	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

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/435-pg22373-part27/e4/