Exam question 1 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 91: the m…

Which of the following describes the mermaid's condition upon her first waking at the palace?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mermaid · What happens: follow, be, wake · To what, where: palace

This is exam question 1 of lesson 880 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 91: the mermaid gets legs, dances for the prince, and sails away with him» 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 condition	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	9 condition	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 condition	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 condition	case
5	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 condition	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mermaid	det
7	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 condition	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 mermaid	case
9	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 waking	case
11	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 waking	nmod:poss
12	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	13 waking	amod
13	waking	waking	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 condition	nmod
14	at	at	ADP	_	16 palace	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 palace	det
16	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 waking	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 condition	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	present			of the mermaid's condition; upon mermaid's first waking at the palace	tree rules
3	wake		mermaid	the palace		nom waking «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent at=place

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

She had human legs but no clothing and could not speak, though she could still hear everything the prince said to her at court

The tree, 24 words

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	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 legs	amod
4	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 had	obj
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	7 clothing	cc
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 clothing	det
7	clothing	clothing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 legs	conj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 speak	cc
9	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 speak	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 speak	advmod
11	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 had	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 hear	punct
13	though	though	SCONJ	_	17 hear	mark
14	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 hear	nsubj
15	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	17 hear	aux
16	still	still	ADV	_	17 hear	advmod
17	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 had	parataxis
18	everything	everything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	17 hear	obj
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 prince	det
20	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 said	nsubj
21	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 hear	ccomp
22	to	to	ADP	_	23 her	case
23	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 said	obl
24	at	at	ADP	_	25 court	case
25	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 said	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	roles by
1	have	past	She	human legs but no clothing				vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient
2	not speak speech: other	could	She not said here					vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	hear	could	she	everything			still	tree rules
4	say speech: assert	past	the prince		her = she	court		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

She had human legs but no clothing 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	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 legs	amod
4	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 had	obj
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	7 clothing	cc
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 clothing	det
7	clothing	clothing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 legs	conj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 speak	cc
9	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 speak	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 speak	advmod
11	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 had	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	She	human legs but no clothing					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient
2	not speak speech: other	could	She not said here						vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

She had human legs, no clothes, and was sure she could sing

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	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 legs	amod
4	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 had	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 clothes	punct
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 clothes	det
7	clothes	clothes	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 legs	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 sure	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 sure	cc
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 sure	cop
11	sure	sure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 had	conj
12	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 sing	nsubj
13	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 sing	aux
14	sing	sing	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 sure	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	have	past	She	human legs and no clothes		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient
2	is	past	She not said here		sure property	tree rules
3	sing speech: express	could	she			vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location

Option 4

She had a fish tail and was clothed in silver cloth

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	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 tail	det
4	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tail	compound
5	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 clothed	cc
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 clothed	aux:pass
8	clothed	clothe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 had	conj
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 cloth	case
10	silver	silver	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cloth	compound
11	cloth	cloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 clothed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	She	a fish tail					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient
2	clothe	past · passive	She not said here					in silver cloth	vn dress-41.1.1-1-2 «Passive»: in cloth=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.

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