Exam question 2 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Brave Little Tailor, part 17: the…

Which was the tailor's stated reason for leaping over the tree?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: stated reason · What happens: state, be, leap · To what, where: stated reason, tree

This is exam question 2 of lesson 741 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Brave Little Tailor, part 17: the tailor tricks the giants and wins a place at the king's court» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 reason	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 reason	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 tailor	det
4	tailor	tailor	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 reason	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 tailor	case
6	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 reason	amod
7	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 leaping	mark
9	leaping	leap	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 reason	acl
10	over	over	ADP	_	12 tree	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 tree	det
12	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 leaping	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	state speech: other	participle				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past		the tailor's stated reason		tree rules
3	leap	gerund	the tailor's stated reason not said here		the tree	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over tree=Trajectory

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 was chasing a deer

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 chasing	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 chasing	aux
3	chasing	chase	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 deer	det
5	deer	deer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 chasing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chase	past · progressive	He	a deer					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deer=Theme

Option 2

The huntsmen were noisy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 huntsmen	det
2	huntsmen	huntsman	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 noisy	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 noisy	cop
4	noisy	noisy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the huntsmen					noisy property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He said the giants were calling him from the cave

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 said	nsubj
2	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 giants	det
4	giants	giant	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 calling	nsubj
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 calling	aux
6	calling	call	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 said	ccomp
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 calling	obj
8	from	from	ADP	_	10 cave	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 cave	det
10	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 calling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	call	past · progressive	the giants	him = he		the cave			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent he=Theme from cave=Source

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He claimed huntsmen were shooting in the thicket

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 claimed	nsubj
2	claimed	claim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	huntsmen	huntsman	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 shooting	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 shooting	aux
5	shooting	shoot	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 claimed	ccomp
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 thicket	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 thicket	det
8	thicket	thicket	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 shooting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	claim speech: other	past	He						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	shoot	past · progressive	huntsmen			the thicket			vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in thicket=Destination

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/741-pg2591-part17/e2/