Exam question 1 · Just So Stories, The Butterfly that Stamped, part 1: a wis…

Identify the reason for which Suleiman-bin-Daoud declined to employ his ring against the quarrelsome Queens.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Suleiman · What happens: identify, decline, not employ · To what, where: reason, ring

This is exam question 1 of lesson 96 «Just So Stories, The Butterfly that Stamped, part 1: a wise king, a hungry Animal and a butterfly's boast» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 declined	obl
6	Suleiman	Suleiman	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 declined	nsubj
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 Suleiman	punct
8	bin	bin	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 Suleiman	flat
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 bin	punct
10	Daoud	Daoud	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Suleiman	flat
11	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 employ	mark
13	employ	employ	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 declined	xcomp
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 ring	nmod:poss
15	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 employ	obj
16	against	against	ADP	_	19 Queens	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 Queens	det
18	quarrelsome	quarrelsome	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 Queens	amod
19	Queens	queen	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 employ	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	decline	past	Suleiman		for the reason	vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not employ	to-infinitive	Suleiman not said here	Suleiman's ring	against the quarrelsome Queens	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ring=Theme

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

He believed the ring was far too heavy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 believed	nsubj
2	believed	believe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 ring	det
4	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 heavy	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 heavy	cop
6	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 heavy	advmod
7	too	too	ADV	_	8 heavy	advmod
8	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 believed	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	believe	past	He						vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer
2	is	past	the ring					far, heavy property	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

He held that so doing would constitute showing off, and would shame him before the Queens and all the Djinns

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 held	nsubj
2	held	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 constitute	nsubj:outer
4	so	so	ADV	_	7 constitute	advmod
5	doing	do	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 constitute	nsubj
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 constitute	aux
7	constitute	constitute	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 held	advcl
8	showing	show	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 constitute	xcomp
9	off	off	ADP	_	8 showing	compound:prt
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 shame	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 shame	cc
12	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 shame	aux
13	shame	shame	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 held	advcl
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 shame	obj
15	before	before	ADP	_	17 Queens	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 Queens	det
17	Queens	queen	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 shame	obl
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 Djinns	cc
19	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	21 Djinns	det:predet
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 Djinns	det
21	Djinns	djinn	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 Queens	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	hold	past	He			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	do	gerund				vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	constitute	would	that			tree rules
4	show off	gerund	that not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	shame	would	He not said here	him = he	before the Queens and all Djinns	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He held that so doing would constitute showing off

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 held	nsubj
2	held	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 constitute	nsubj:outer
4	so	so	ADV	_	7 constitute	advmod
5	doing	do	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 constitute	nsubj
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 constitute	aux
7	constitute	constitute	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 held	advcl
8	showing	show	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 constitute	xcomp
9	off	off	ADP	_	8 showing	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	hold	past	He	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	do	gerund		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	constitute	would	that	tree rules
4	show off	gerund	that not said here	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

He feared the Queens would be cross

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 feared	nsubj
2	feared	fear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Queens	det
4	Queens	queen	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 cross	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 cross	aux
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 cross	cop
7	cross	cross	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 feared	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fear	past	He						vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	is	would	the Queens					cross property	tree rules

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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