Exam question 3 · Lang's fairy book, Paperarello, part 21: a magic curl give…

In what manner did the prince's conduct at the palace differ from that of ordinary servants?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: prince · What happens: do, differ, conduct · To what, where: conduct, manner, palace

This is exam question 3 of lesson 681 «Lang's fairy book, Paperarello, part 21: a magic curl gives the prince a castle, bread and a battle win» 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	6 prince	det
6	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 conduct	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 prince	case
8	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
9	at	at	ADP	_	11 palace	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 palace	det
11	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 differ	obl
12	differ	differ	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	parataxis
13	from	from	ADP	_	14 that	case
14	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	12 differ	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 servants	case
16	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 servants	amod
17	servants	servant	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 that	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	past		the prince's conduct	what manner		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Eventuality
2	differ	present			the palace	from that	vn differ-23.4 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme from that=Co-Theme
3	conduct		the prince				nom conduct «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 worked very hard

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 worked	nsubj
2	worked	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	very	very	ADV	_	4 hard	advmod
4	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 worked	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	past	He					hard property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

He acted like a common servant in every way

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 acted	nsubj
2	acted	act	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	like	like	ADP	_	6 servant	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 servant	det
5	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 servant	amod
6	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acted	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 way	case
8	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	9 way	det
9	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	past	He			every way		like a common servant	vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent like servant=Attribute

Option 3

He worked as an ordinary servant for the king

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 worked	nsubj
2	worked	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADP	_	6 servant	case
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 servant	det
5	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 servant	amod
6	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 worked	obl
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 king	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 king	det
9	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 worked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	past	He					as a ordinary servant; for the king	vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.attribute PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent as servant=Attribute for king=Beneficiary

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He deliberately soiled himself to conceal his rank

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	3 soiled	nsubj
2	deliberately	deliberately	ADV	_	3 soiled	advmod
3	soiled	soil	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	3 soiled	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 conceal	mark
6	conceal	conceal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 soiled	xcomp
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 rank	nmod:poss
8	rank	rank	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conceal	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	soil	past	He	himself = he				deliberately property	tree rules
2	conceal	to-infinitive	He not said here	his rank					vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rank=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/681-pg2435-part21/e3/