Exam question 4 · Grimm's Household Tales, The Old Man and His Grandson: a w…

What was the purpose for which the grandson constructed the trough?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: purpose, grandson · What happens: be, construct · To what, where: trough

This is exam question 4 of lesson 751 «Grimm's Household Tales, The Old Man and His Grandson: a wooden calf, a raven and a hidden Devil» 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	root	root
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purpose	det
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 constructed	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 grandson	det
8	grandson	grandson	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 constructed	nsubj
9	constructed	construct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 purpose	acl:relcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 trough	det
11	trough	trough	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 constructed	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the purpose						tree rules
2	construct	past	the grandson	the trough				for the purpose	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent trough=Result for which=Beneficiary

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 · ✓ the right answer

To feed his parents in their old age

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 feed	mark
2	feed	feed	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 parents	nmod:poss
4	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 feed	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 age	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 age	nmod:poss
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 age	amod
8	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feed	to-infinitive		his parents			in parents's old age		vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent parent=Value in age=Location

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

To feed his parents when they are old and weak and cannot eat well

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 feed	mark
2	feed	feed	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 parents	nmod:poss
4	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 feed	obj
5	when	when	SCONJ	_	8 old	mark
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 old	nsubj
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 old	cop
8	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 feed	advcl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 weak	cc
10	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 old	conj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 eat	cc
12	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 eat	aux
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 eat	advmod
14	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 feed	conj
15	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	14 eat	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	other	roles by
1	feed	to-infinitive		his parents		vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent parent=Recipient
2	is	present	parents = parent		old property	tree rules
3	be		parents = parent not said here			tree rules
4	not eat	can			well property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

To give his father a place to sit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 give	mark
2	give	give	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 father	nmod:poss
4	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 give	iobj
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 place	det
6	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 give	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 sit	mark
8	sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 place	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	to-infinitive		a place	his father				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent father=Recipient place=Theme
2	sit	to-infinitive		a place not said here					vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

To teach his small children how to feed their parents in their old age someday

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 teach	mark
2	teach	teach	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 children	nmod:poss
4	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 children	amod
5	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 teach	obj
6	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	8 feed	advmod
7	to	to	PART	_	8 feed	mark
8	feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 teach	xcomp
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 parents	nmod:poss
10	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 feed	obj
11	in	in	ADP	_	15 someday	case
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 someday	nmod:poss
13	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 someday	amod
14	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 someday	compound
15	someday	someday	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 feed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	teach speech: other	to-infinitive			his small children				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent child=Recipient clause=Topic
2	feed	to-infinitive		children's parents		children's old age someday			vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent parent=Value in someday=Location

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/751-pg2591-part27/e4/