Exam question 2 · Castles, knights and cathedrals

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the mounting of a horse by a knight clad in plate armour?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, clad, mount · To what, where: mounting, knight, plate armour, horse

This is exam question 2 of lesson 21 «Castles, knights and cathedrals» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 mounting	det
10	mounting	mounting	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 horse	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 horse	det
13	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 mounting	nmod
14	by	by	ADP	_	16 knight	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 knight	det
16	knight	knight	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obl
17	clad	clad	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 knight	acl
18	in	in	ADP	_	20 armour	case
19	plate	plate	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 armour	compound
20	armour	armour	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 clad	obl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the mounting of a horse		of the following statements; by a knight; accurately property	tree rules
3	clad	participle	a knight not said here	plate armour		tree rules
4	mount		a horse			nom mounting «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

Mounting was impossible and he fought on foot

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mounting	mounting	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 impossible	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 impossible	cop
3	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 fought	cc
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 fought	nsubj
6	fought	fight	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 impossible	conj
7	on	on	ADP	_	8 foot	case
8	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fought	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Mounting					impossible property	tree rules
2	fight	past	he			foot			vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He was carried by his squire upon his back

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	3 carried	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 carried	aux:pass
3	carried	carry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 squire	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 squire	nmod:poss
6	squire	squire	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 carried	obl
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 back	case
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 back	nmod:poss
9	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 carried	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	past · passive	his squire	He				upon squire's back	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He was invariably hoisted by a crane

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	4 hoisted	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 hoisted	aux:pass
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 hoisted	advmod
4	hoisted	hoist	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 crane	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 crane	det
7	crane	crane	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hoisted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hoist	past · passive		He				by a crane; invariably property	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme by crane=Destination

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He was capable of mounting unaided

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	3 capable	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 capable	cop
3	capable	capable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 mounting	mark
5	mounting	mount	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 capable	advcl
6	unaided	unaided	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 mounting	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	He					capable property	tree rules
2	mount	gerund	He not said here					unaided property	vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=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.

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