Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 90: the m…

Which description most accurately characterises the mermaid's physical state upon her return to the palace?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: description · What happens: characteris, return · To what, where: physical state

This is exam question 4 of lesson 879 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 90: the mermaid sneaks off to the sea witch and pays a terrible price» 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 description	det
2	description	description	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 characterises	nsubj
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 accurately	advmod
4	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	5 characterises	advmod
5	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mermaid	det
7	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 state	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 mermaid	case
9	physical	physical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 state	amod
10	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 characterises	obj
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 return	case
12	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 return	nmod:poss
13	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 characterises	obl
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 palace	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 palace	det
16	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 return	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	characteris	present	which description	the mermaid's physical state				upon description's return to the palace; accurately property	tree rules
2	return		description					to the palace	nom return «communication intransitive»: poss=agent to=obl

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 · ✓ the right answer

She was dumb and shall never sing again

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 dumb	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 dumb	cop
3	dumb	dumb	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 sing	cc
5	shall	shall	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 sing	aux
6	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	7 sing	advmod
7	sing	sing	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 dumb	conj
8	again	again	ADV	_	7 sing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	She					dumb property	tree rules
2	not sing speech: express	shall	She not said here				again		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

She was weak and could not speak

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 weak	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 weak	cop
3	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 speak	cc
5	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 speak	aux
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 speak	advmod
7	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 weak	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	She					weak property	tree rules
2	not speak speech: other	could	She not said here						vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

She was mute

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 mute	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 mute	cop
3	mute	mute	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	She					mute property	tree rules

Option 4

She had lost her voice and her tail

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 lost	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 lost	aux
3	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 voice	nmod:poss
5	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lost	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 tail	cc
7	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 tail	nmod:poss
8	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 voice	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past · perfect	She	her voice and her tail					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent voice=Eventuality

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/879-pg27200-part90/e4/