Exam question 1 · Folk-Tales, The Waters of Life and Death, part 53: magic w…

With what instrument did the maiden effect the descent of the murderer into the well?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: murderer · What happens: do, descend · To what, where: maiden effect, well

This is exam question 1 of lesson 461 «Folk-Tales, The Waters of Life and Death, part 53: magic water brings the dead back, and Snakes and cliffs guard the flasks» 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	With	with	ADP	_	3 instrument	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 instrument	det
3	instrument	instrument	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 effect	det
6	maiden	maiden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 effect	amod
7	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 descent	det
9	descent	descent	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 effect	appos
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 murderer	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 murderer	det
12	murderer	murderer	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 descent	nmod
13	into	into	ADP	_	15 well	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 well	det
15	well	well	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		the maiden effect		the well		with what instrument	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Eventuality
2	descend		the murderer						nom descent «event intransitive»: of=agent

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

by means of her remarkably long hair and a bucket

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	2 means	case
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 her	case
4	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 means	obl
5	remarkably	remarkably	ADV	_	6 long	advmod
6	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 hair	amod
7	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 means	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 bucket	cc
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 bucket	det
10	bucket	bucket	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hair	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present		long hair and a bucket				of her = she	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Topic

Option 2

by means of a silken cord

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	2 means	case
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 cord	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 cord	det
5	silken	silken	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cord	amod
6	cord	cord	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present						of a silken cord	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

by means of her remarkably long hair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	2 means	case
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 her	case
4	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 means	obl
5	remarkably	remarkably	ADV	_	6 long	advmod
6	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 hair	amod
7	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 means	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present		long hair				of her = she	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Topic

Option 4

through her long golden braid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	through	through	ADP	_	5 braid	case
2	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 braid	nmod:poss
3	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 braid	amod
4	golden	golden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 braid	amod
5	braid	braid	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

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/461-pg22373-part53/e1/