Exam question 2 · Esthonian Tales, Tiidu the Piper: Tiidu sells magic apples…

What was the principal cause of the illness afflicting the royal family?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: illness · What happens: be, afflict · To what, where: principal cause, royal family

This is exam question 2 of lesson 680 «Esthonian Tales, Tiidu the Piper: Tiidu sells magic apples at the palace, and the royal noses grow.» 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 cause	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cause	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cause	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cause	amod
5	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 illness	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 illness	det
8	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cause	nmod
9	afflicting	afflict	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 illness	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 family	det
11	royal	royal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 family	amod
12	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 afflicting	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal cause				of the illness	tree rules
2	afflict	gerund	the illness not said here	the royal family					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus family=Experiencer

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

Drinking the stranger's tea each morning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Drinking	drink	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 stranger	det
3	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tea	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 stranger	case
5	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Drinking	obj
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 morning	det
7	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Drinking	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	gerund		the stranger's tea			morning		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tea=Patient

Option 2

Eating the stranger's bread

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 stranger	det
3	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bread	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 stranger	case
5	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Eating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	gerund		the stranger's bread					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bread=Patient

Option 3

Poisoned wine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 wine	amod
2	wine	wine	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	poison	participle							vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Consumption of the stranger's apples

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	6 apples	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 stranger	det
4	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 apples	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 stranger	case
6	apples	apple	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Consumption	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume			the stranger's apples					nom consumption «act transitive»: of=patient

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/680-pg2435-part20/e2/