Exam question 2 · Poetry: rhyme and rhythm

Which of the following most accurately characterises rhythm in poetry?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: rhythm, poetry

This is exam question 2 of lesson 45 «Poetry: rhyme and rhythm» of the English 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	4 following	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 following	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	7 characterises	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 following	advcl
8	rhythm	rhythm	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 poetry	case
10	poetry	poetry	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 rhythm	nmod
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		rhythm		poetry		accurately property	tree rules

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 correspondence of sounds at the ends of words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 correspondence	det
2	correspondence	correspondence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 sounds	case
4	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 correspondence	nmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 ends	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ends	det
7	ends	end	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 sounds	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 words	case
9	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 ends	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	correspond		sounds at the ends of words						nom correspondence «communication intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2

The number of lines in a stanza

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 number	det
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 lines	case
4	lines	line	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 number	nmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 stanza	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 stanza	det
7	stanza	stanza	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 lines	nmod

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

Option 3

The meaning conveyed by a poem's title

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 meaning	det
2	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 meaning	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	8 title	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 poem	det
6	poem	poem	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 title	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 poem	case
8	title	title	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conveyed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	convey	participle		the meaning not said here				by a poem's title	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	title		a poem						nom title «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The pattern of strong and weak beats within a line

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pattern	det
2	pattern	pattern	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 beats	case
4	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 beats	amod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 weak	cc
6	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 strong	conj
7	beats	beat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pattern	nmod
8	within	within	ADP	_	10 line	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 line	det
10	line	line	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 beats	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pattern		strong beats within a line						nom pattern «cognition intransitive»: of=agent

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/english/45-poetry-rhyme-and-rhythm/e2/