Exam question 1 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 87: the s…

Which of the following, according to the text, was the rank indicated by the number of oysters worn upon the tail of the grandmother?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: text · What happens: follow, accord, be, indicate, wear · To what, where: rank, oysters

This is exam question 1 of lesson 876 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 87: the sea-princesses dream of the world above the waves» 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	9 text	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	9 text	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 text	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 text	case
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 text	punct
6	according	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 text	case
7	to	to	ADP	_	6 according	fixed
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 text	det
9	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 rank	nsubj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 text	punct
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 rank	cop
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 rank	det
13	rank	rank	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
14	indicated	indicate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 rank	acl
15	by	by	ADP	_	17 number	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 number	det
17	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 indicated	obl
18	of	of	ADP	_	19 oysters	case
19	oysters	oyster	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 number	nmod
20	worn	wear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 oysters	acl
21	upon	upon	ADP	_	23 tail	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 tail	det
23	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 worn	obl
24	of	of	ADP	_	26 grandmother	case
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 grandmother	det
26	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 tail	nmod
27	?	?	PUNCT	_	13 rank	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	accord	gerund				vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
3	is a	past	the text	the rank		tree rules
4	indicate	participle		the rank not said here	by the number of oysters	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot
5	wear	participle		oysters not said here	upon the tail of the grandmother	vn wipe_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

a high birth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

Option 2

royal rank

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	royal	royal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 rank	amod
2	rank	rank	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

a noble tie to the sea-king's court

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 tie	det
2	noble	noble	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 tie	amod
3	tie	tie	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	10 court	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 king	det
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 king	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 sea	punct
8	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 court	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 king	case
10	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 tie	nmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

a high birth, signified by twelve oysters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 birth	det
2	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 birth	amod
3	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 signified	punct
5	signified	signify	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 birth	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 oysters	case
7	twelve	twelve	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 oysters	nummod
8	oysters	oyster	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 signified	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	signify	participle		a high birth not said here				by twelve oysters	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot

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/876-pg27200-part87/e1/