Exam question 4 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Brave Little Tailor, part 17: the…

What is the principal cause of the soldiers' petition for dismissal?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: soldiers · What happens: be, petition · To what, where: principal cause

This is exam question 4 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 cause	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres 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	_	10 petition	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 soldiers	det
8	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 petition	nmod:poss
9	'	's	PART	_	8 soldiers	case
10	petition	petition	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cause	nmod
11	for	for	ADP	_	12 dismissal	case
12	dismissal	dismissal	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 petition	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		the principal cause				of the soldiers's petition for dismissal	tree rules
2	petition		the soldiers					for dismissal	nom petition «communication transitive»: poss=agent for=obl

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

Their pay was late

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 pay	nmod:poss
2	pay	pay	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 late	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 late	cop
4	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Their pay					late property	tree rules
2	pay		Their = they						nom pay «possession transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

Their wish to return home to their families now

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 wish	nmod:poss
2	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 return	nsubj
3	to	to	PART	_	4 return	mark
4	return	return	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	home	home	ADV	_	4 return	advmod
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 families	case
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 families	nmod:poss
8	families	family	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 return	obl
9	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 return	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	return	to-infinitive	Their wish				now	to their families result; home property	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to family=Result
2	wish		Their = they						nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Their fear of his power to slay seven at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 fear	nmod:poss
2	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 slay	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 power	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 power	nmod:poss
5	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fear	nmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 slay	mark
7	slay	slay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 slay	obj
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 once	case
10	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	7 slay	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	slay	to-infinitive	Their fear of fear's power	seven					vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seven=Patient
2	fear		Their = they	fear's power					nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 4

Their anger at the king for low wages

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 anger	nmod:poss
2	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	at	at	ADP	_	5 king	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 king	det
5	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 anger	nmod
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 wages	case
7	low	low	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 wages	amod
8	wages	wage	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 anger	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	anger		Their = they					at the king; for low wages	nom anger «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent at=obl for=obl

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/e4/