Exam question 2 · Fairy Tales (pg2435), The Boy Who Could Keep A Secret: the…

In what manner did the boy respond to the king's offer of adoption?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: king · What happens: do, offer · To what, where: boy respond, manner, adoption

This is exam question 2 of lesson 670 «Fairy Tales (pg2435), The Boy Who Could Keep A Secret: the king adopts the boy, and the sword slides home» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 respond	det
6	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 respond	compound
7	respond	respond	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	to	to	ADP	_	12 offer	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 king	det
10	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 offer	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 king	case
12	offer	offer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 adoption	case
14	adoption	adoption	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 offer	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		the boy respond		what manner		to the king's offer of adoption	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent respond=Eventuality
2	offer		the king	adoption					nom offer «communication transitive»: poss=agent of=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

He refused

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 refused	nsubj
2	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	refuse	past	He						vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He agreed, if his mum said yes

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 agreed	nsubj
2	agreed	agree	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 said	punct
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 said	mark
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 mum	nmod:poss
6	mum	mum	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 said	nsubj
7	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 agreed	conj
8	yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	7 said	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	agree speech: agree	past	He						vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert a condition, not said to happen	past	his mum						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent yes=Topic

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He accepted when mother allowed it

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 accepted	nsubj
2	accepted	accept	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	5 allowed	advmod
4	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 allowed	nsubj
5	allowed	allow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 accepted	ccomp
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 allowed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accept	past	He						vn accept-77.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	allow	past	mother	it					vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He consented, provided his mother agreed

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 consented	nsubj
2	consented	consent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 provided	punct
4	provided	provide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 consented	conj
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 mother	nmod:poss
6	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 agreed	nsubj
7	agreed	agree	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 provided	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	consent	past	He	vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	provide	past	He not said here	vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition clause=Theme
3	agree speech: agree	past	his mother	vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/670-pg2435-part10/e2/