Exam question 4 · Grimm, The Brave Little Tailor, the tailor fools giants, a…

Which of the following correctly describes the outcome when the men sent to seize the tailor overheard his words?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: men, tailor · What happens: follow, describe, send, seize, overhear, word · To what, where: outcome, words

This is exam question 4 of lesson 742 «Grimm, The Brave Little Tailor, the tailor fools giants, a unicorn and a boar, and frightens off his foes» 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	6 describes	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 describes	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 describes	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 describes	nsubj
5	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	6 describes	advmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 outcome	det
8	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describes	obj
9	when	when	SCONJ	_	12 sent	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 men	det
11	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 sent	nsubj
12	sent	send	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 outcome	acl
13	to	to	PART	_	14 seize	mark
14	seize	seize	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 sent	xcomp
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 tailor	det
16	tailor	tailor	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 overheard	nsubj
17	overheard	overhear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 seize	ccomp
18	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 words	nmod:poss
19	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 overheard	obj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the outcome	correctly property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent outcome=Theme
3	send	past	the men			tree rules
4	seize	to-infinitive	the men not said here			tree rules
5	overhear	past	the tailor	tailor's words		vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus
6	word		tailor			nom word «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

They turned and fled in great dread, and never came back to try again

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 turned	nsubj
2	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 fled	cc
4	fled	flee	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 turned	conj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 dread	case
6	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 dread	amod
7	dread	dread	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fled	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 came	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 came	cc
10	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	11 came	advmod
11	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 turned	conj
12	back	back	ADV	_	11 came	advmod
13	to	to	PART	_	14 try	mark
14	try	try	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 came	xcomp
15	again	again	ADV	_	14 try	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	when	roles by
1	turn	past	They			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
2	flee	past	They not said here	great dread		vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	not come back	past	They not said here			tree rules
4	try	to-infinitive	They not said here		again	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

They fled in fear and dropped the chase entirely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fled	nsubj
2	fled	flee	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 fear	case
4	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fled	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 dropped	cc
6	dropped	drop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 fled	conj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 chase	det
8	chase	chase	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 dropped	obj
9	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	6 dropped	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flee	past	They			fear			vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	drop	past	They not said here	the chase				entirely property	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chase=Theme

Option 3

They fled in great dread and returned to the king without the tailor

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fled	nsubj
2	fled	flee	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 dread	case
4	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 dread	amod
5	dread	dread	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fled	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 returned	cc
7	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 fled	conj
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 king	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 king	det
10	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 returned	obl
11	without	without	ADP	_	13 tailor	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 tailor	det
13	tailor	tailor	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 returned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flee	past	They			great dread			vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	return	past	They not said here					to the king result; without the tailor	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to king=Result

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They fled in great dread and ceased their pursuit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fled	nsubj
2	fled	flee	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 dread	case
4	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 dread	amod
5	dread	dread	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fled	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 ceased	cc
7	ceased	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 fled	conj
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 pursuit	nmod:poss
9	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ceased	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	flee	past	They		great dread	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	cease	past	They not said here	their pursuit		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality pursuit=Eventuality
3	pursue		their = they			nom pursuit «act transitive»: poss=agent

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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