Exam question 4 · A Poet's Bazaar, The Dryad, part 29: the Rat mourns the ol…

Which fish, by its own account, possessed the greatest advantages over mankind?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: fish, its · What happens: possess, account · To what, where: greatest advantages, mankind

This is exam question 4 of lesson 818 «A Poet's Bazaar, The Dryad, part 29: the Rat mourns the old days, the Dryad dances at Mabille and flies to the red tower, and the fishes gossip» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 possessed	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 account	punct
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 account	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 account	nmod:poss
6	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 account	amod
7	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fish	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 fish	punct
9	possessed	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 advantages	det
11	greatest	great	ADJ	Degree=Sup	12 advantages	amod
12	advantages	advantage	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 possessed	obj
13	over	over	ADP	_	14 mankind	case
14	mankind	mankind	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 possessed	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 possessed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	past	which fish and its own account	the greatest advantages		mankind			vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot advantage=Theme
2	account		its = it						nom account «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

a small slimy whiting with a very long opinion of men

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 whiting	det
2	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 whiting	amod
3	slimy	slimy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 whiting	amod
4	whiting	whiting	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	9 opinion	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 opinion	det
7	very	very	ADV	_	8 long	advmod
8	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 opinion	amod
9	opinion	opinion	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 whiting	nmod
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 men	case
11	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 opinion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	opine			men					nom opinion «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

a little slimy Whiting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 Whiting	det
2	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 Whiting	amod
3	slimy	slimy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 Whiting	amod
4	Whiting	whiting	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

a clever greasy mackerel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 mackerel	det
2	clever	clever	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 mackerel	amod
3	greasy	greasy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 mackerel	amod
4	mackerel	mackerel	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

a little slimy whiting who knew about scales

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 whiting	det
2	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 whiting	amod
3	slimy	slimy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 whiting	amod
4	whiting	whiting	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 knew	nsubj
6	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 whiting	acl:relcl
7	about	about	ADP	_	8 scales	case
8	scales	scale	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 knew	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	past	a little slimy whiting					about scales	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer about scale=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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