Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, Soup from a Sausage Skewer, part 1…

Which object did the elves request from the first traveller, and for what purpose did they employ it?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: object, elves, purpose · What happens: do, request, employ · To what, where: first traveller, object

This is exam question 3 of lesson 989 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, Soup from a Sausage Skewer, part 1: four mice set out to learn how to make soup, and one of them meets elves at a Maypole dance» 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 object	det
2	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 elves	det
5	elves	elf	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 request	nsubj
6	request	request	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	from	from	ADP	_	10 traveller	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 traveller	det
9	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	10 traveller	amod
10	traveller	traveller	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 request	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 what	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 what	cc
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 what	case
14	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 did	parataxis
15	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 employ	nsubj
16	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 employ	aux
17	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 employ	nsubj
18	employ	employ	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 what	acl:relcl
19	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 employ	obj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	do	past	which object			tree rules
2	request	present	the elves		the first traveller	vn beg-58.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent
3	employ	past · do-support	purpose	object		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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 · ✓ the right answer

a sausage skewer, to erect a maypole

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 skewer	det
2	sausage	sausage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 skewer	compound
3	skewer	skewer	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 erect	punct
5	to	to	PART	_	6 erect	mark
6	erect	erect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 skewer	acl:relcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 maypole	det
8	maypole	maypole	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 erect	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	erect	to-infinitive		a maypole					vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent maypole=Product

Option 2

a sausage skewer, to erect a tall maypole for the midsummer dance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 skewer	det
2	sausage	sausage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 skewer	compound
3	skewer	skewer	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 erect	punct
5	to	to	PART	_	6 erect	mark
6	erect	erect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 skewer	acl:relcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 maypole	det
8	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 maypole	amod
9	maypole	maypole	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 erect	obj
10	for	for	ADP	_	13 dance	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 dance	det
12	midsummer	midsummer	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 dance	compound
13	dance	dance	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 erect	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	erect	to-infinitive		a tall maypole				for the midsummer dance	vn build-26.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent maypole=Product for dance=Beneficiary

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

a sausage skewer, for a dance hall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 skewer	det
2	sausage	sausage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 skewer	compound
3	skewer	skewer	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 hall	punct
5	for	for	ADP	_	8 hall	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 hall	det
7	dance	dance	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 hall	compound
8	hall	hall	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 skewer	appos

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

a sausage spit, to hang lamps on

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 spit	det
2	sausage	sausage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 spit	compound
3	spit	spit	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 hang	punct
5	to	to	PART	_	6 hang	mark
6	hang	hang	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 spit	acl
7	lamps	lamp	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 hang	obj
8	on	on	ADV	_	6 hang	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hang	to-infinitive		lamps					vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lamp=Patient

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/989-pg27200-part200/e3/