Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, Ole the Tower-Keeper, part 140: Ole talk…

What did Ole say of the boulders, and of his own relation to them?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Ole · What happens: say · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 929 «Andersen's Tales, Ole the Tower-Keeper, part 140: Ole talks about boulders, the wild ride to Amack and falling stars» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 say	obj
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
3	Ole	Ole	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 say	nsubj
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 boulders	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 boulders	det
7	boulders	boulder	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 say	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 relation	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 relation	cc
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 relation	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 relation	nmod:poss
12	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 relation	amod
13	relation	relation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 say	obl
14	to	to	ADP	_	15 them	case
15	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 relation	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 say	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past · do-support	Ole					of the boulders; of Ole's own relation to boulders	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic

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

they were rare and old

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 rare	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 rare	cop
3	rare	rare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 old	cc
5	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 rare	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	they					rare property	tree rules
2	be		they not said here						tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

they were rare old fellows, and he had passed them carelessly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 fellows	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 fellows	cop
3	rare	rare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 fellows	amod
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 fellows	amod
5	fellows	fellow	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 passed	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 passed	cc
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 passed	nsubj
9	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 passed	aux
10	passed	pass	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 fellows	acl
11	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 passed	obj
12	carelessly	carelessly	ADV	_	10 passed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	they	rare old fellows					tree rules
2	pass	past · perfect	he	fellows = fellow				carelessly property	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Trajectory

Option 3

they were strange, and he had barely noticed them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 strange	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 strange	cop
3	strange	strange	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 noticed	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 noticed	cc
6	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 noticed	nsubj
7	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 noticed	aux
8	barely	barely	ADV	_	9 noticed	advmod
9	noticed	notice	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	3 strange	parataxis
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 noticed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	they					strange property	tree rules
2	notice	past · perfect	he	them = they				barely property	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus

Option 4

they were old stones, and he had ignored them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 stones	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 stones	cop
3	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 stones	amod
4	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 ignored	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 ignored	cc
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 ignored	nsubj
8	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 ignored	aux
9	ignored	ignore	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 stones	acl:relcl
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 ignored	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	they	old stones					tree rules
2	ignore	past · perfect	he	stones = stone					vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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