Exam question 4 · Uncle Remus, The Tar-Baby, part 2: Brer Rabbit rides Brer…

What is the most accurate account of the closing interchange between the old man and the little boy?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: accurate account · What happens: be, account · To what, where: closing interchange

This is exam question 4 of lesson 570 «Uncle Remus, The Tar-Baby, part 2: Brer Rabbit rides Brer Fox to Miss Meadows's and hitches him to the rack» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 account	det
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 accurate	advmod
5	accurate	accurate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 account	amod
6	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 interchange	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 interchange	det
9	closing	closing	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 interchange	compound
10	interchange	interchange	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 account	nmod
11	between	between	ADP	_	14 man	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 man	det
13	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 man	amod
14	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 interchange	nmod
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 boy	cc
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 boy	det
17	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 boy	amod
18	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 man	conj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the accurate account of the closing interchange between the old man and the little boy						tree rules
2	account			the closing interchange between the old man and the little boy					nom account «communication 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 · ✓ the right answer

The old man declined to relate further matter, citing the excessive length of the cloth

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 man	det
2	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 man	amod
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 declined	nsubj
4	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 relate	mark
6	relate	relate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 declined	xcomp
7	further	far	ADV	Degree=Cmp	8 matter	advmod
8	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 relate	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 citing	punct
10	citing	cite	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 declined	advcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 length	det
12	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 length	amod
13	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 citing	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 cloth	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 cloth	det
16	cloth	cloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 length	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	decline	past	the old man		vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not relate	to-infinitive	the old man not said here	matter	vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme
3	cite	gerund	the old man not said here	the excessive length of the cloth	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent length=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The old man agreed to tell one more tale

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 man	det
2	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 man	amod
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 agreed	nsubj
4	agreed	agree	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 tell	mark
6	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 agreed	xcomp
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 tale	nummod
8	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 tale	amod
9	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tell	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	agree speech: agree	past	the old man						vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	tell speech: assert not said to happen	to-infinitive	the old man not said here	one more tale					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient

Option 3

The old man declined to relate any further matter because the tale's cloth was too excessive and long

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 man	det
2	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 man	amod
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 declined	nsubj
4	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 relate	mark
6	relate	relate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 declined	xcomp
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 matter	det
8	further	further	ADV	_	9 matter	advmod
9	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 relate	obj
10	because	because	SCONJ	_	17 excessive	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 tale	det
12	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 cloth	nmod:poss
13	's	's	PART	_	12 tale	case
14	cloth	cloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 excessive	nsubj
15	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 excessive	cop
16	too	too	ADV	_	17 excessive	advmod
17	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 relate	advcl
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 long	cc
19	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 excessive	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	decline	past	the old man			vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not relate	to-infinitive	the old man not said here	any matter		vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent matter=Theme
3	is	past	the tale's cloth		excessive property	tree rules
4	be		the tale's cloth not said here			tree rules

Option 4

The old man kept telling tales until the boy fell asleep on the porch steps

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 man	det
2	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 man	amod
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 kept	nsubj
4	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 kept	xcomp
6	tales	tale	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 telling	obj
7	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 fell	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 boy	det
9	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fell	nsubj
10	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 telling	ccomp
11	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 fell	xcomp
12	on	on	ADP	_	15 steps	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 steps	det
14	porch	porch	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 steps	compound
15	steps	step	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 fell	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	keep	past	the old man			tree rules
2	tell speech: assert	gerund	the old man not said here	tales		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient clause=Topic
3	fall	past	the boy		on the porch steps; asleep property	vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on step=Location

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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