Exam question 1 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shirt Collar: a boastful colla…

By what means did the shirt collar attempt to secure a matrimonial alliance?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: mean, do, secure · To what, where: collar attempt, matrimonial alliance · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 976 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shirt Collar: a boastful collar loses every bride and ends as paper» 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	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 attempt	det
6	shirt	shirt	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 collar	compound
7	collar	collar	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 attempt	compound
8	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 secure	mark
10	secure	secure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 attempt	acl
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 alliance	det
12	matrimonial	matrimonial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 alliance	amod
13	alliance	alliance	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 secure	obj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past	the collar attempt	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attempt=Eventuality
3	secure	to-infinitive	a matrimonial alliance	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition alliance=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

By offering a proposal to the flat-iron

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 offering	mark
2	offering	offer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 proposal	det
4	proposal	proposal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 offering	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	9 iron	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 iron	det
7	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 iron	amod
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 flat	punct
9	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 offering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	gerund		a proposal				to the flat iron goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent proposal=Theme to iron=Goal

Option 2

By begging the garter to wed him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 begging	mark
2	begging	beg	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 garter	det
4	garter	garter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 begging	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 wed	mark
6	wed	wed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 begging	advcl
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 wed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	beg speech: request	gerund		the garter					vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent garter=Recipient
2	wed	to-infinitive		him = he					vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 3

By writing a grand letter to the scissors

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 writing	mark
2	writing	write	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 letter	det
4	grand	grand	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 letter	amod
5	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 writing	obj
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 scissors	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 scissors	det
8	scissors	scissors	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 writing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	gerund		a grand letter	the scissors				vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent letter=Topic to scissors=Recipient

Option 4

By buying her a gift

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 buying	mark
2	buying	buy	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 buying	obj
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 gift	det
5	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 buying	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	buy	gerund		a gift	her = she				vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent she=Beneficiary gift=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/976-pg27200-part187/e1/