Exam question 2 · Danish Fairy and Folk Tales, Rasmus and Niels, part 49: Ni…

What was the principal reason given for Niels's refusal to part with his firearm?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Niels · What happens: be, give, refuse · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 709 «Danish Fairy and Folk Tales, Rasmus and Niels, part 49: Niels shoots at three giants and is caught» 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 reason	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reason	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 reason	amod
5	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 reason	acl
7	for	for	ADP	_	10 refusal	case
8	Niels	Niels	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 refusal	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Niels	case
10	refusal	refusal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 given	obl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 part	mark
12	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 given	advcl
13	with	with	ADP	_	15 firearm	case
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 firearm	nmod:poss
15	firearm	firearm	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 part	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal reason		tree rules
2	give	participle		the principal reason not said here	for Niels's refusal	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent for refusal=Asset
3	refuse		Niels			nom refusal «communication 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 · ← Mova's choice

He had promised his father that he would never part with it on any road or trip

The tree, 17 words

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 promised	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 promised	aux
3	promised	promise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 father	nmod:poss
5	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 promised	obj
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 part	mark
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 part	nsubj
8	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 part	aux
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 part	advmod
10	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 promised	advcl
11	with	with	ADP	_	12 it	case
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 part	nmod
13	on	on	ADP	_	15 road	case
14	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 road	det
15	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 promised	obl
16	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 trip	cc
17	trip	trip	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 road	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	promise speech: promise	past · perfect	He		his father	any road or trip			vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent father=Theme
2	not part	would	he					with part	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He could not be content without 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	5 content	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 content	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 content	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 content	cop
5	content	content	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 it	case
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 content	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	could	He					without it; content property	tree rules

Option 3

He had promised his father to keep 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	3 promised	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 promised	aux
3	promised	promise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 father	nmod:poss
5	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 promised	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 keep	mark
7	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 promised	advcl
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 keep	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	promise speech: promise	past · perfect	He		his father				vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent father=Theme
2	keep	to-infinitive	He not said here	it					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4

He feared wolves on the long road

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 feared	nsubj
2	feared	fear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	wolves	wolf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 feared	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	7 road	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 road	det
6	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 road	amod
7	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feared	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fear	past	He	wolves		the long road			vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wolf=Stimulus

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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