Test 12 · ★ · Uncle Remus, The Tar-Baby, part 5: Brer Rabbit tricks Brer…

Bro, what's the old man doing with the yam?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Bro, old man · What happens: be, do · To what, where: old man

This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 569 «Uncle Remus, The Tar-Baby, part 5: Brer Rabbit tricks Brer Fox into the brier-patch» of the books course of Mova's primary school. 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	Bro	bro	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 man	punct
3	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 man	nsubj
4	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 man	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 man	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 man	amod
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Bro	appos
8	doing	do	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 man	acl
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 yam	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 yam	det
11	yam	yam	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 doing	obl
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Bro	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Bro	the old man					tree rules
2	do	gerund	the old man not said here					with the yam	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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

Roasting it in the ashes of the fire while he sings to the little boy

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Roasting	roast	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 sings	csubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Roasting	obj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 ashes	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 ashes	det
5	ashes	ash	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Roasting	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 fire	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 fire	det
8	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ashes	nmod
9	while	while	SCONJ	_	11 sings	mark
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 sings	nsubj
11	sings	sing	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	to	to	ADP	_	15 boy	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 boy	det
14	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 boy	amod
15	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 sings	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	roast	gerund		it				in the ashes of the fire	vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient in ash=Instrument
2	sing speech: express	present	he		the little boy				vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to boy=Recipient

Option 2

Washing it in the creek

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Washing	wash	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Washing	obj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 creek	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 creek	det
5	creek	creek	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Washing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wash	gerund		it		the creek			vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Peeling it slowly with his knife while he keeps telling the boy stories

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Peeling	peel	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 keeps	csubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Peeling	obj
3	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	1 Peeling	advmod
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 knife	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 knife	nmod:poss
6	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Peeling	obl
7	while	while	SCONJ	_	9 keeps	mark
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 keeps	nsubj
9	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 keeps	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 stories	det
12	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 stories	compound
13	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 telling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	peel	gerund		it	with his knife; slowly property	vn pit-10.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Source
2	keep	present	he			tree rules
3	tell speech: assert	gerund	he not said here	the boy stories		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Peeling it while he talks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Peeling	peel	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 talks	csubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Peeling	obj
3	while	while	SCONJ	_	5 talks	mark
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 talks	nsubj
5	talks	talk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	peel	gerund		it					vn pit-10.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Source
2	talk	present	he						vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/569-pg2306-part5/t12/