Exam question 3 · Native peoples of North America

Ascertain the principal cause of the great mortality among indigenous peoples following contact with Europeans.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, indigenous peoples · What happens: ascertain, follow, cause · To what, where: principal cause, contact, great mortality

This is exam question 3 of lesson 17 «Native peoples of North America» of the history 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 mortality	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 mortality	det
7	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 mortality	amod
8	mortality	mortality	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
9	among	among	ADP	_	11 peoples	case
10	indigenous	indigenous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 peoples	amod
11	peoples	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 mortality	nmod
12	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 peoples	acl
13	contact	contact	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 following	obj
14	with	with	ADP	_	15 Europeans	case
15	Europeans	European	PROPN	Number=Plur	13 contact	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the great mortality among indigenous peoples		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cause=Topic
2	follow	gerund	indigenous peoples not said here	contact	with Europeans	vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent contact=Theme
3	cause			the great mortality among indigenous peoples		nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient

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

Volcanic eruptions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Volcanic	volcanic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 eruptions	amod
2	eruptions	eruption	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Diseases such as smallpox, against which they had no resistance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Diseases	disease	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 had	nsubj
2	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	4 smallpox	case
3	as	as	ADP	_	2 such	fixed
4	smallpox	smallpox	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Diseases	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 had	punct
6	against	against	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 had	obl
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 had	nsubj
9	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 resistance	det
11	resistance	resistance	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	Diseases such smallpox	no resistance					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent resistance=Patient

Option 3

The failure of the bison herds alone, which left every nation starving

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 failure	det
2	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 left	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 herds	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 herds	det
5	bison	bison	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 herds	compound
6	herds	herd	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 failure	nmod
7	alone	alone	ADV	_	6 herds	advmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 left	punct
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 left	nsubj
10	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	12 nation	det
12	nation	nation	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 left	obj
13	starving	starve	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 left	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	leave	past	the failure of the bison herds	every nation	tree rules
2	starve	gerund	every nation not said here		tree rules
3	fail		the bison herds		nom failure «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

A renewed ice age

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 age	det
2	renewed	renew	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 age	amod
3	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 age	compound
4	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	renew	participle							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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.

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