Exam question 3 · The Jungle Book, Toomai of the Elephants, part 26: Toomai…

What was the reply of Little Toomai when questioned concerning the purpose of his elephant's training?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: reply, training, elephant · What happens: be, question, concern, reply, purpose, train · To what, where: purpose, Little Toomai

This is exam question 3 of lesson 625 «The Jungle Book, Toomai of the Elephants, part 26: Toomai is scolded, then brought before Petersen Sahib» 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	root	root
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reply	det
4	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 Toomai	case
6	Little	Little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 Toomai	amod
7	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 reply	nmod
8	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	9 questioned	advmod
9	questioned	question	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 Toomai	acl
10	concerning	concern	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 questioned	advcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 purpose	det
12	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 concerning	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	17 training	case
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 elephant	nmod:poss
15	elephant	elephant	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 training	nmod:poss
16	's	's	PART	_	15 elephant	case
17	training	training	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 purpose	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	past	the reply of Little Toomai		tree rules
2	question speech: other	participle			vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	concern	gerund		the purpose of Toomai's elephant's training	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus purpose=Experiencer
4	reply			Little Toomai	nom reply «communication transitive»: of=patient
5	purpose		Toomai's elephant's training		nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: of=agent
6	train		Toomai's elephant		nom training «act 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

He said the corn was for the horses

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 said	nsubj
2	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 corn	det
4	corn	corn	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 said	obj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 horses	cop
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 horses	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 horses	det
8	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 corn	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	He	the corn and the horses					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent corn=Topic
2	is	past	He not said here					for the horses	tree rules

Option 2

He said it was a trick for the sahib

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 said	nsubj
2	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 trick	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 trick	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 trick	det
6	trick	trick	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 said	ccomp
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 sahib	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sahib	det
9	sahib	sahib	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 trick	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	it	a trick				for the sahib	tree rules

Option 3

He answered that the trick was for melons, and that he had been taught it in the camp by his father

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 answered	nsubj
2	answered	answer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 taught	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 trick	det
5	trick	trick	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 taught	nsubj:pass
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 taught	aux:pass
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 melons	case
8	melons	melon	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 taught	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 taught	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 taught	cc
11	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 taught	mark
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 taught	nsubj:pass
13	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 taught	aux
14	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	15 taught	aux:pass
15	taught	teach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 answered	ccomp
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 taught	obj
17	in	in	ADP	_	19 camp	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 camp	det
19	camp	camp	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 taught	obl
20	by	by	ADP	_	22 father	case
21	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	22 father	nmod:poss
22	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 taught	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	answer speech: assert	past	He						tree rules
2	teach speech: other	past · perfect · passive	his father	the trick	it	the camp		for melons	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient it=Topic

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

He answered that the trick was for melons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 answered	nsubj
2	answered	answer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 melons	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 trick	det
5	trick	trick	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 melons	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 melons	cop
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 melons	case
8	melons	melon	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 answered	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	answer speech: assert	past	He						vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	the trick					for melons	tree rules

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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