Exam question 4 · Uncle Remus, That Deceitful Jug, part 33: an old jug makes…

What is the principal theme of the sketch, and which character is its chief comic speaker?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: character · What happens: be · To what, where: principal theme, chief comic speaker

This is exam question 4 of lesson 597 «Uncle Remus, That Deceitful Jug, part 33: an old jug makes the newspaper men tease Uncle Remus» 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	5 theme	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 theme	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 theme	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 theme	amod
5	theme	theme	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 sketch	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sketch	det
8	sketch	sketch	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 theme	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 speaker	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 speaker	cc
11	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	12 character	det
12	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 speaker	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 speaker	cop
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 speaker	nmod:poss
15	chief	chief	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 speaker	amod
16	comic	comic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 speaker	amod
17	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 theme	parataxis
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 theme	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		the principal theme				of the sketch	tree rules
2	is a	present	which character	character's chief comic speaker					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 · ← Mova's choice

The jug's false wind; Brer John Henry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 jug	det
2	jug	jug	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 wind	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 jug	case
4	false	false	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 wind	amod
5	wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	7 Brer	punct
7	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 wind	appos
8	John	John	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Brer	appos
9	Henry	Henry	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 John	flat

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wind			the jug					nom wind «phenomenon transitive»: poss=patient

Option 2

The jug's supposed trickery, which the editors mock all day; Uncle Remus, who grins through it

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 jug	det
2	jug	jug	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 trickery	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 jug	case
4	supposed	suppose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 trickery	amod
5	trickery	trickery	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 mock	punct
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 mock	obj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 editors	det
9	editors	editor	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 mock	nsubj
10	mock	mock	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 trickery	conj
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	12 day	det
12	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 mock	obl:unmarked
13	;	;	PUNCT	_	15 Remus	punct
14	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 Remus	compound
15	Remus	Remus	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 trickery	appos
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 grins	punct
17	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 grins	nsubj
18	grins	grin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 trickery	parataxis
19	through	through	ADP	_	20 it	case
20	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 grins	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	suppose	participle					vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	mock	present	the editors	the jug's supposed trickery		day	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Theme
3	grin	present	the jug's supposed trickery		trickery		vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	trick			the jug			nom trickery «communication transitive»: poss=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The jug's supposed trickery; Uncle Remus

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 jug	det
2	jug	jug	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 trickery	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 jug	case
4	supposed	suppose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 trickery	amod
5	trickery	trickery	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	8 Remus	punct
7	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Remus	compound
8	Remus	Remus	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 trickery	appos

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	suppose	participle							vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	trick			the jug					nom trickery «communication transitive»: poss=patient

Option 4

Trickery; Remus

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Trickery	trickery	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	;	;	PUNCT	_	3 Remus	punct
3	Remus	Remus	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Trickery	appos

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

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/597-pg2306-part33/e4/