Exam question 1 · Uncle Remus, Jacky-my-lantern: the blacksmith tricks the B…

Which device did the blacksmith employ to retain the Bad Man against his will?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: device · What happens: do, retain · To what, where: blacksmith employ, Bad Man

This is exam question 1 of lesson 587 «Uncle Remus, Jacky-my-lantern: the blacksmith tricks the Bad Man and ends up as a light between heaven and earth» 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 device	det
2	device	device	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 employ	det
5	blacksmith	blacksmith	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 employ	amod
6	employ	employ	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 retain	mark
8	retain	retain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 employ	acl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Man	det
10	Bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 Man	amod
11	Man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 retain	obj
12	against	against	ADP	_	14 will	case
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 will	nmod:poss
14	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 Man	acl:relcl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	which device	the blacksmith employ					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent employ=Eventuality
2	retain	to-infinitive	which device not said here	the Bad Man					tree rules

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

a magic chair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 chair	det
2	magic	magic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 chair	amod
3	chair	chair	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

a spell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 spell	det
2	spell	spell	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

a conjured chair with iron chains that holds the visitor fast forever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 chair	det
2	conjured	conjure	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 chair	amod
3	chair	chair	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 chains	case
5	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 chains	compound
6	chains	chain	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 chair	nmod
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 holds	nsubj
8	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 chair	acl:relcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 visitor	det
10	visitor	visitor	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 holds	obj
11	fast	fast	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 holds	advmod
12	forever	forever	ADV	_	8 holds	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conjure	participle							vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	hold	present	a conjured chair with iron chains	the visitor				fast, forever property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent visitor=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

a conjured chair that holds the visitor fast

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 chair	det
2	conjured	conjure	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 chair	amod
3	chair	chair	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 holds	nsubj
5	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 chair	acl:relcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 visitor	det
7	visitor	visitor	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 holds	obj
8	fast	fast	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 holds	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conjure	participle							vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	hold	present	a conjured chair	the visitor				fast property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent visitor=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/587-pg2306-part23/e1/