Exam question 3 · Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 88: the mermaid save…

By what means did the mermaid keep the prince's head above the waves?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mermaid · What happens: mean, keep · To what, where: head, waves · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 877 «Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 88: the mermaid saves the drowning prince from the storm» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 keep	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 mermaid	det
6	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 keep	nsubj
7	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 means	ccomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 prince	det
9	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 head	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 prince	case
11	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 keep	obj
12	above	above	ADP	_	14 waves	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 waves	det
14	waves	wave	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 keep	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	keep	past · do-support	the mermaid	the prince's head		the waves			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent head=Theme above wave=Location

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

By tying it to a floating log

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 tying	mark
2	tying	tie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 tying	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 log	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 log	det
6	floating	float	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 log	amod
7	log	log	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	gerund		it				to a floating log	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient to log=Co-Patient
2	float	gerund							vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

By lifting it on a wave

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 lifting	mark
2	lifting	lift	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 lifting	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 wave	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 wave	det
6	wave	wave	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lifting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lift	gerund		it		a wave			vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme on wave=Destination

Option 3

By wrapping it in seaweed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 wrapping	mark
2	wrapping	wrap	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wrapping	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 seaweed	case
5	seaweed	seaweed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wrapping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wrap	gerund		it		seaweed			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme in seaweed=Destination

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

By holding it with her own hands

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 holding	mark
2	holding	hold	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 holding	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 hands	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 hands	nmod:poss
6	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 hands	amod
7	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 holding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	gerund		it				with her own hands	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

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/877-pg27200-part88/e3/