Exam question 1 · Uncle Remus, The Awful Fate of Mr. Wolf, part 10: Brer Rab…

Which action does Brer Rabbit prescribe to the feigned corpse of Brer Fox?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: action · What happens: rabbit, prescribe, feign

This is exam question 1 of lesson 574 «Uncle Remus, The Awful Fate of Mr. Wolf, part 10: Brer Rabbit traps Brer Wolf in a chest and then sets a kettle on the fire» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 action	det
2	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 Rabbit	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 Rabbit	aux
4	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Rabbit	nsubj
5	Rabbit	rabbit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	prescribe	prescribe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 Rabbit	xcomp
7	to	to	ADP	_	10 corpse	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 corpse	det
9	feigned	feign	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 corpse	amod
10	corpse	corpse	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 prescribe	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 Fox	case
12	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Fox	compound
13	Fox	Fox	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 corpse	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 Rabbit	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	rabbit	present · do-support	which action		tree rules
2	prescribe	infinitive	which action not said here	to the feigned corpse of Brer Fox	tree rules
3	feign	participle			vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: 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 · ← Mova's choice

Waving a hind leg and singing loud

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Waving	wave	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 leg	det
3	hind	hind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 leg	amod
4	leg	leg	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Waving	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 singing	cc
6	singing	sing	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Waving	conj
7	loud	loud	ADV	_	6 singing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wave	gerund		a hind leg					vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient
2	sing speech: express	gerund						loud property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Raising a hind leg and hollering wahoo

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Raising	raise	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 leg	det
3	hind	hind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 leg	amod
4	leg	leg	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Raising	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 hollering	cc
6	hollering	holler	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Raising	conj
7	wahoo	wahoo	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 hollering	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	gerund		a hind leg					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Theme
2	holler speech: other	gerund		wahoo					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wahoo=Topic

Option 3

Raising a hind leg and hollering wahoo before running off into the woods

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Raising	raise	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 leg	det
3	hind	hind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 leg	amod
4	leg	leg	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Raising	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 hollering	cc
6	hollering	holler	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Raising	conj
7	wahoo	wahoo	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 hollering	obj
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	9 running	mark
9	running	run	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 hollering	advcl
10	off	off	ADP	_	9 running	compound:prt
11	into	into	ADP	_	13 woods	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 woods	det
13	woods	wood	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 running	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	raise	gerund	a hind leg		vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Theme
2	holler speech: other	gerund	wahoo		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wahoo=Topic
3	run off	gerund		into the woods result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into wood=Result

Option 4

Lifting a front paw and hollering hello

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lifting	lift	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 paw	det
3	front	front	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 paw	amod
4	paw	paw	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lifting	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 hollering	cc
6	hollering	holler	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Lifting	conj
7	hello	hello	INTJ	_	1 Lifting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lift	gerund		a front paw					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent paw=Theme hello=Destination
2	holler speech: other	gerund							vn manner_speaking-37.3 «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/574-pg2306-part10/e1/