Exam question 2 · Violet Fairy Book, Sigurd and Lineik, part 38: the childre…

For what purpose did the king instruct his children to seek the two trees?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: king · What happens: instruct, seek · To what, where: children, two trees

This is exam question 2 of lesson 698 «Violet Fairy Book, Sigurd and Lineik, part 38: the children flee to the grove, and the prince is deceived» 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	For	for	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 instruct	obl
3	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	nsubj
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 instruct	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 king	det
6	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 instruct	nsubj
7	instruct	instruct	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 children	nmod:poss
9	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 instruct	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 seek	mark
11	seek	seek	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 instruct	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 trees	det
13	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 trees	nummod
14	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 seek	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 instruct	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	instruct speech: other	past · do-support	the king		king's children				vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent child=Recipient
2	seek	to-infinitive	the king not said here	the two trees					vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme

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

So they could bring back the royal treasure from the mountains

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	So	so	ADV	_	4 bring	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 bring	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 bring	aux
4	bring	bring	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	back	back	ADV	_	4 bring	advmod
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 treasure	det
7	royal	royal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 treasure	amod
8	treasure	treasure	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bring	obj
9	from	from	ADP	_	11 mountains	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 mountains	det
11	mountains	mountain	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 bring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bring back	could	they	the royal treasure		the mountains			vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent treasure=Theme from mountain=Initial_Location

Option 2

To help them win a war against the northern kings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 help	mark
2	help	help	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 help	obj
4	win	win	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 help	xcomp
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 war	det
6	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 win	obj
7	against	against	ADP	_	10 kings	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 kings	det
9	northern	northern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 kings	amod
10	kings	king	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 win	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	to-infinitive		them = they					vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary clause=Theme
2	win	infinitive	them = they not said here	a war				against the northern kings	vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent war=Eventuality

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To secure their safety from enemies

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 secure	mark
2	secure	secure	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 safety	nmod:poss
4	safety	safety	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 secure	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 enemies	case
6	enemies	enemy	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 secure	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	secure	to-infinitive		their safety		enemies			vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent safety=Theme from enemy=Source

Option 4

To guard their kingdom's throne

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 guard	mark
2	guard	guard	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 kingdom	nmod:poss
4	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 throne	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 kingdom	case
6	throne	throne	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 guard	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guard	to-infinitive		their kingdom's throne					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent throne=Beneficiary

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/698-pg2435-part38/e2/