Exam question 4 · Uncle Remus, Rabbit Finds His Match at Last, part 13: Poss…

By what means did Brer Fox's argument seek to establish Brer Possum's guilt?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: argument, Brer · What happens: mean, seek, establish, argue · To what, where: guilt

This is exam question 4 of lesson 577 «Uncle Remus, Rabbit Finds His Match at Last, part 13: Possum burned for butter, Rabbit bets Tarrypin a race» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 seek	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 seek	aux
5	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 argument	nmod:poss
6	Fox	Fox	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Brer	flat
7	's	's	PART	_	5 Brer	case
8	argument	argument	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 seek	nsubj
9	seek	seek	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	to	to	PART	_	11 establish	mark
11	establish	establish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 seek	xcomp
12	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 guilt	nmod:poss
13	Possum	Possum	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 Brer	flat
14	's	's	PART	_	12 Brer	case
15	guilt	guilt	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 establish	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 seek	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	seek	past · do-support	Brer's argument		tree rules
3	establish not said to happen	to-infinitive	Brer's argument not said here	Brer's guilt	vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent guilt=Patient
4	argue		Brer		nom argument «communication transitive»: poss=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 · ✓ the right answer

by claiming he was first at the butter and first to miss it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 claiming	mark
2	claiming	claim	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 first	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 first	cop
5	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	2 claiming	advmod
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 butter	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 butter	det
8	butter	butter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 first	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 first	cc
10	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 first	conj
11	to	to	PART	_	12 miss	mark
12	miss	miss	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 claiming	advcl
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 miss	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	claim speech: other	gerund					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	he		the butter	first property	tree rules
3	miss	to-infinitive		butter			vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus

Option 2

by insisting he was the only one awake

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 insisting	mark
2	insisting	insist	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 one	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 one	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 one	det
6	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 one	amod
7	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 insisting	ccomp
8	awake	awake	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 insisting	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	insist speech: other	gerund						awake property	vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	he	the only one					tree rules

Option 3

by swearing he saw the thief run off in the dark

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 swearing	mark
2	swearing	swear	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 saw	advcl
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 saw	nsubj
4	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 thief	det
6	thief	thief	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 saw	obj
7	run	run	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 thief	acl
8	off	off	ADP	_	7 run	compound:prt
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 dark	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 dark	det
11	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 run	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	swear	gerund	he not said here			vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	see	past	he	the thief		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thief=Stimulus
3	run off	participle		the thief not said here	the dark	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in dark=Trajectory

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

by claiming he was first at the butter, first to miss it, and last to leave the house

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 claiming	mark
2	claiming	claim	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 miss	advcl
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 butter	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 butter	cop
5	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	8 butter	advmod
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 butter	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 butter	det
8	butter	butter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 claiming	ccomp
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 claiming	punct
10	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	12 miss	advmod
11	to	to	PART	_	12 miss	mark
12	miss	miss	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 miss	obj
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 last	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 last	cc
16	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 miss	conj
17	to	to	PART	_	18 leave	mark
18	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 last	xcomp
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 house	det
20	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 leave	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	claim speech: other	gerund					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	he		the butter	first property	tree rules
3	miss	to-infinitive		butter		first property	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
4	leave	to-infinitive		the house			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme

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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