Exam question 2 · Europe's Fairy Book, Tiidu the Piper, part 17: a wise maid…

What was the principal impediment to the kettle's stability upon the tripod?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be · To what, where: principal impediment

This is exam question 2 of lesson 677 «Europe's Fairy Book, Tiidu the Piper, part 17: a wise maiden is carried off, and lazy Tiidu finds his pipes» 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 impediment	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 impediment	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 impediment	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 impediment	amod
5	impediment	impediment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	10 stability	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 kettle	det
8	kettle	kettle	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stability	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 kettle	case
10	stability	stability	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 impediment	nmod
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 tripod	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 tripod	det
13	tripod	tripod	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stability	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 impediment	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal impediment				to the kettle's stability upon the tripod	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

its weight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 weight	nmod:poss
2	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

its tendency to slip from the stand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 tendency	nmod:poss
2	tendency	tendency	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 slip	nsubj
3	to	to	PART	_	4 slip	mark
4	slip	slip	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 stand	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 stand	det
7	stand	stand	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 slip	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	slip	to-infinitive	its tendency					from the stand	vn split-23.2 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient from stand=Co-Patient
2	tend		its = it						nom tendency «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

the way it kept sliding about

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 way	det
2	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 kept	obl:unmarked
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 kept	nsubj
4	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	sliding	slide	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 kept	xcomp
6	about	about	ADV	_	5 sliding	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	past	way	the way					tree rules
2	slide	gerund	the way not said here					about property	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

its unstable base and uneven legs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 base	nmod:poss
2	unstable	unstable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 base	amod
3	base	base	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 legs	cc
5	uneven	uneven	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 legs	amod
6	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 base	conj

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.

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