Exam question 3 · Uncle Remus, A Plantation Witch, part 1: the boy hears of…

Which measure did the kinsman employ to restrain the transformed brother?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: kinsman · What happens: measure, employ, restrain, transform · To what, where: transformed brother

This is exam question 3 of lesson 586 «Uncle Remus, A Plantation Witch, part 1: the boy hears of witch-stirrups and a witch who loses his skin» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	2 measure	nsubj
2	measure	measure	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 employ	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 kinsman	det
5	kinsman	kinsman	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 employ	nsubj
6	employ	employ	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 measure	ccomp
7	to	to	PART	_	8 restrain	mark
8	restrain	restrain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 employ	xcomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 brother	det
10	transformed	transform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 brother	amod
11	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 restrain	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 measure	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	measure	present			tree rules
2	employ	past · do-support	the kinsman		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Attribute
3	restrain	to-infinitive	the kinsman not said here	the transformed brother	vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer brother=Eventuality
4	transform	participle			vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Turning the hide inside out and salting it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Turning	turn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 hide	det
3	hide	hide	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Turning	obj
4	inside	inside	ADV	_	1 Turning	advmod
5	out	out	ADV	_	1 Turning	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 salting	cc
7	salting	salt	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Turning	conj
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 salting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	gerund		the hide				inside, out property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent hide=Theme
2	salt	gerund		hide					vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Destination

Option 2

Wrapping him in a wet blanket

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wrapping	wrap	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Wrapping	obj
3	in	in	ADP	_	6 blanket	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 blanket	det
5	wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 blanket	amod
6	blanket	blanket	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Wrapping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wrap	gerund		him = he		a wet blanket			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme in blanket=Destination

Option 3

Burning the hide

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 hide	det
3	hide	hide	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Burning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	gerund		the hide					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent hide=Theme

Option 4

Hanging the hide on a fence post

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hanging	hang	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 hide	det
3	hide	hide	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Hanging	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	7 post	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 post	det
6	fence	fence	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 post	compound
7	post	post	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Hanging	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hang	gerund		the hide		a fence post			vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hide=Theme on post=Destination

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/586-pg2306-part22/e3/